Among the 18 names listed in the 41-count indictment unsealed by a Fulton County, Georgia D.A. tonight was one not generally associated with Donald Trump and his inner circle: Trevian C. Kutti.
While not as familiar to cable news junkies as Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman or Mark Meadows, Kutti is well known in other circles as Kanye West’s onetime publicist. She is also, notably, the woman recorded on video trying to convince Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker whom Trump had public attacked, to implicate herself in election fraud regarding the 2020 presidential election.
Counts 30 & 31 of the indictment charge Kutti, Stephen Cliffguard Lee and Harrison William Prescott Floyd with “conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statement and writings” and “influencing witnesses,” respectively.
Count 30 says the trio “unlawfully conspired to solicit, request, and importune Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County, Georgia, election worker, to engage in conduct constituting the felony offense of False Statements and Writings, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20, by knowingly and willfully making a false statement and representation concerning events at State Farm Arena in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia…with intent that said person engage in said conduct; and TREVIAN C. KUTTI traveled to Fulton County, Georgia, and placed a telephone call to Ruby Freeman while in Fulton County, Georgia, which were overt acts to effect the object of the conspiracy, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof.”
Count 31 alleges Kutti, Lee and Floyd “knowingly and unlawfully engaged in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freeman, aFulton County, Georgia, election worker, by stating that she needed protection and by purporting to offer her help, with intent to influence her testimony in an official proceeding inFulton County, Georgia, concerning events at State Farm Arena in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof.”
The indictment claims the alleged actions took place on and around January 4, 2021, which was about two months after West, who was friendly with former President Trump and who some publications alleged received campaign assistance from Trump allies, ended his own bid for the presidency.
In December 2021, in response to a story by Reuters, a spokesperson for West said in a statement that “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.”
The timeline of their working relationship is unclear, but reports have Kutti associated with the hip-hop superstar since 2018, when she ceased working with R. Kelly. According to Reuters, Kutti’s online biography as of 2021, identified her “as a member of ‘the Young Black Leadership Council under President Donald Trump.’” It also asserted that in September 2018 she “was secured as publicist to Kanye West” and served “as West’s Director of Operations.”