A publicist for rapper Kanye West showed up at the house of a Georgia election worker in early 2021 to pressure her into making false claims of voter fraud, Reuters reported Friday.
Trevian Kutti, who said she was sent by a “high-profile individual” but did not name West, knocked on the door of election worker Ruby Freeman on Jan. 4 and told Freeman that she “was in danger” and had “48 hours” before “unknown subjects” turned up at her home, according to a police report.
Freeman, who worked as a temporary election worker during the 2020 election, became a target of Donald Trump supporters who blamed her for Trump’s loss in Georgia. The false claims of election fraud made by Trump’s campaign and right-wing disinformation publication The Gateway Pundit in December 2020 centered around the conspiracy theory that Freeman and her daughter illegally counted mail-in ballots and put them into a suitcase. The alleged “suitcase” was a standard ballot container. Freeman and her daughter did nothing wrong. Trump ultimately lost the election because he got fewer votes. That didn’t stop abuse and threats from pouring in.
When Kutti knocked on the door of the 62-year-old temporary election worker, she offered “help.” Freeman, who was wary of strangers, called the police. Reuters reported:
“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.
West, a longtime supporter of Trump, made his own failed bid for president. He has not yet responded to the Reuters report.
Freeman and Kutti later went to a police station, where Freeman realized Kutti was working for West and attempting to intimidate her. From Reuters:
Inside the station, Kutti and Freeman met in a corner, according to footage from a body camera worn by an officer present at the meeting. Reuters obtained the video through a public-records request.
“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.
Two days later, on Jan. 6, Kutti’s prediction that Freeman would have her freedoms disrupted proved right when a swarm of Trump supporters descended on Freeman’s home and began shouting at her through bullhorns. That same day, hundreds of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol.
Freeman is now suing The Gateway Pundit for defamation for the lies the publication spread about her role in the election.