Linda So and Jason Szep

ATLANTA (Reuters), Several weeks after the 2020 election, a Chicago publicist, Kanye West, visited Ruby Freeman’s suburban Georgia home. Ruby was a terrified Georgia election worker, who had been falsely accused of manipulating votes by President Donald Trump. A publicist came knocking on Ruby Freeman’s door, offering to assist.

The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn’t say she worked for West, a longtime billionaire friend of Trump. She said she was sent by a “high-profile individual,” whom she didn’t identify, to give Freeman an urgent message: confess to Trump’s voter-fraud allegations, or people would come to her home in 48 hours, and she’d go to jail.

Freeman declined. This story of how an associate of a music mogul pressured a 62-year-old temporary election worker at the center of a Trump conspiracy theory is based on previously unreported police recordings and reports, legal filings, and Freeman’s first media interview since she was dragged into Trump’s attempt to reverse his election loss.

Kutti didn’t respond to our requests for comment. Her biography for her work at the Women’s Global Initiative, a business networking group, identifies her as a member of “the Young Black Leadership Council under President Donald Trump.” It notes that in September 2018, she “was secured as publicist to Kanye West” and “now serves as West’s Director of Operations.”

Kutti’s representative claimed that Kutti wasn’t associated with West at the time she met Freeman. Pierre Rougier, a spokesperson for the rapper, said on Sunday: “Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises at the times of the facts that are reported in these articles or since these facts occurred.”

Rougier didn’t answer any additional questions regarding whether Kutti was employed by West at different times or if West and Kutti were friends. Reuters attempted to contact a different West representative before publishing the article. However, Reuters did not receive a reply.

Kutti called 911 when she knocked at Freeman’s front door Jan. 4. Freeman stated that she had become wary of strangers by then.

Starting on Dec. 3, Trump and his campaign repeatedly accused Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of illegally counting phony mail-in ballots after pulling them from mysterious suitcases while working on Election Day at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. In fact, the “suitcases” were standard ballot containers, and the votes were properly counted, county and state officials quickly confirmed, refuting the fraud claims.

Trump and his allies kept accusing Freeman, Moss and other election-riggers. These allegations sparked hundreds of harassment and threats against Freeman and Moss and their families.

By the time Kutti arrived, Freeman needed help but was cautious and wouldn’t open the door because of the threats, according to Freeman and a police report.

Freeman then asked his neighbor to visit Kutti and speak with him. Kutti was also with another unidentified man. Kutti, like Freeman were both Black. Kutti told the neighbor that Freeman was in danger and that she’d been sent to provide assistance. Freeman stated that she would be open to the idea of meeting with them. According to her 911 call, she asked Cobb County Police for an officer to watch to allow her to step out.

“They’re saying that I need help,” Freeman told the dispatcher, referring to the people at her door, “that it’s just a matter of time that they are going to come out for me and my family.”

An officer arrived and spoke with Kutti, who described herself as a “crisis manager,” according to the police incident report.

Kutti repeated that Freeman “was in danger” and had “48 hours” before “unknown subjects” turned up at her home, the report said. At the officer’s suggestion, the women agreed to meet at a police station. The officer’s report did not identify the man accompanying Kutti.

‘YOU’RE A LOOSE END’

Kutti met Freeman inside the station. This is according to footage captured by a bodycam worn by an officer who was present during the meeting. Reuters received the video via a public-records inquiry.

“I cannot say what specifically will take place,” Kutti is heard telling Freeman in the recording. “I just know that it will disrupt your freedom,” she said, “and the freedom of one or more of your family members.”

“You are a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up,” Kutti continued. She added that “federal people” were involved, without offering specifics.

According to Freeman, Kutti told her that she was going to put a man named “Harrison Ford” on speakerphone. (Freeman said the man on the phone wasn’t the actor by the same name.) Kutti said the man had “authoritative powers to get you protection,” the bodycam footage shows.

Kutti is heard asking the officer for privacy. Kutti can be heard asking the officer to give them privacy. Unfortunately, the body camera didn’t record the conversation.

Kutti tried, along with the man on the phone, to persuade Freeman to confess to voter fraud. Freeman claimed that Kutti provided legal aid in exchange.

“If you don’t tell everything,” Freeman recalled Kutti saying, “you’re going to jail.” 

Growing suspicious, Freeman said she jumped up from her chair and told Kutti: “The devil is a liar,” before calling for an officer.

Later at home, Freeman said, she Googled Kutti’s name and discovered she was a Trump supporter.

According to police, they have not done any further investigation into the matter.

West, who changed his name in October to “Ye,” did not respond to requests for comment sent through another publicist who represents him.

Media reports have cited Kutti’s association with the rapper since 2018, when she ceased working with R. Kelly, an R&B singer who was convicted in September of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges. Kutti claims she founded Trevian Worldwide (a media and entertainment consulting firm that has offices in four major cities), according to her biography. She says that among her clients are Terence Crawford, a boxer, and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, a Jordanian queen.

The meeting took place two months after West ended a failed bid for the White House that drew media attention when several publications revealed that allies and supporters of Trump were working on the ground to advance West’s campaign. Some Democrats said they regarded West’s presidential bid as a ruse to siphon off Black votes from Democrat Joe Biden. Groups assisting the rapper’s campaign denied that charge.

On Jan. 5, the day after Freeman’s meeting with Kutti, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Freeman and urged her to leave her home of 20 years because it wasn’t safe, Freeman said.

The following day, Jan. 6, Kutti’s prediction that people would descend on Freeman’s home in 48 hours proved correct, according to a defamation lawsuit Freeman and Moss filed last week against a far-right news site. The lawsuit claimed that Freeman fled hours earlier than a mob of Trump supporters stormed her home shouting through bullhorns.