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Reuters reported on Friday that the publicist,
Trevian Kutti, met on Jan. 4 with Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County
election worker who had been targeted by then-President Donald
Trump and his allies with baseless claims that she processed
fraudulent votes to favor Democrat Joe Biden.
Freeman told Reuters that Kutti tried to implicate her in
election fraud and warned her that she could be arrested. Kutti
also said the election worker faced unspecified “danger,”
according to a police report. She sought to pressure Freeman
into confessing in exchange for help, according to Freeman, who
said she ended the conversation.
A number of media reports have cited Kutti’s association with
West since 2018.
Pierre Rougier, a spokesperson for West, said in a statement to
Reuters 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 did not answer additional questions from Reuters on
whether Kutti worked for West at other times, or whether West
and Kutti knew one another. Before publishing Friday’s story,
Reuters sought comment from a different representative for West
but did not get a response.
Kutti did not respond to requests for comment made Sunday
morning.
In October, the hip-hop artist changed his name from Kanye West
to Ye.
A biography of Kutti described her as the founder of Trevian
Worldwide, a media and entertainment advisory firm with offices
in four cities. The biography, posted on the website of the
Women’s Global Initiative, a business networking group,
identified her as a member of “the Young Black Leadership
Council under President Donald Trump.” It noted that, in
September 2018, she “was secured as publicist to Kanye West” and
“now serves as West’s Director of Operations.”
By Saturday, the bios of Kutti and other members of WGI’s team
had been removed from the group’s website. The women’s
initiative did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Reuters has detailed a campaign of harassment and intimidation
against Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, also a
Fulton County election worker. The women received hundreds of
threats and harassing messages after lawyers for Trump claimed
in December 2020 that the women had pulled “suitcases” of
fraudulent ballots from under a table on election night and fed
them into vote tabulators.
The claims were quickly debunked by county and state election
officials, who said the “suitcases” were standard ballot
containers and the votes were properly counted.
Trump and his allies continued to falsely accuse the women of
election fraud, sparking months of threats that they said
upended their lives. Some angry Trump supporters visited
Freeman’s home. The 62-year-old temporary election worker went
into hiding.
(Reporting by Jason Szep and Linda So; editing by Brian Thevenot)
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