Kanye’s Former Publicist Arrested for Role in Georgia Election Scheme

Ryan Bort
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Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R. Kelly, surrendered to authorities in Georgia on Friday on charges related to her role in the scheme to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

Kutti’s arrest comes after Donald Trump turned himself in Thursday evening, and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark surrendered early Friday morning. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave the former president and his 18 co-defendants a deadline of Friday at noon to stop by the county jail for booking.

Stephen Lee, a pastor from Illinois, was the last of the 19 total defendants to do so, arriving shortly after Kutti.

Kutti and Lee were both granted a $75,000 bond earlier this week. They were indicted after trying to pressure a Georgia election worker into falsely admitting she was working to rig the election against Trump, as was Harrison Floyd, a former director of Black Voices for Trump who turned himself in earlier this week.

Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani, falsely alleged that election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss were part of a scheme to deliver additional, fraudulent votes to Joe Biden. Lee visited Freeman’s home in December 2020 but was turned away. Kutti visited Freeman’s home on Jan. 4, 2021, with Kutti lying that she was a “crisis manager” who was trying to help Freeman. Freeman ultimately called the police, and bodycam footage taken later at the station shows Kutti trying to pressure Freeman into admitting wrongdoing.

“I cannot say what specifically will take place … I just know that it will disrupt your freedom … 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 told Freeman. Kutti then put Floyd on speakerphone, and Floyd told Freeman that she would go to jail if she didn’t confess.

Freeman and Moss would later appear before the House Jan. 6 committee to testify about how the conspiracy theories about them upended their lives. “It has turned my life upside down.” Moss told the committee. “I don’t want anyone knowing my name … I just don’t do nothing anymore, I don’t want to go anywhere. I second-guess everything that I do. It’s affected my life in a major way, in every way. All because of lies.”

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