Who is Trevian Kutti
Who is Trevian Kutti
Former President Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted by a Georgia grand jury Monday on charges related to alleged efforts to nullify the 2020 election. accused is Trevian Kutti, a journalist who regularly posts pro-Trump articles on social media and has previously worked with Kanye West.
Kutti published an article about the indictment after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced it Monday night. On Instagram, Kutti shared a screenshot of a TMZ article announcing that Kutti, the former West journalist, had been charged. She also posted a pro-Trump meme, which is popular on her social media sites.
Kutti and other accomplices are charged with attempting to influence the testimony of an election official in the election fraud case.
According to the indictment, Kutti was recruited by Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump and a co-defendant in the indictment, to travel from Chicago to Atlanta, where she was tasked with liaising with Ruby Freeman , an election officer . . Kutti allegedly lied to Freeman's neighbors, saying she was a "crisis manager" there to help Freeman.
Trump slandered Freeman as a "professional voter fraudster" and a "political worker," according to the indictment. He also made the baseless claim that Freeman and his daughter wrongly voted for Joe Biden with 18,000 votes while working with the ballot box at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Election Day.
While Kutti said she contacted Freeman to offer to protect election workers, Kutti allegedly contacted her to influence her testimony about the general election. President 2020.
During his meeting with Freeman, Kutti told him that he allegedly asked for a confession to voter fraud, the false accusation that Trump made after losing the presidency to Joe. Biden.
Kutti allegedly told Freeman that people would come to her house in 48 hours if she did not confess to the election fraud allegations, according to Reuters. She also said Freeman would go to jail for it. After Freeman's accusations about Kutti became public in 2021, Pierre Rougier, a spokesman for Kanye West, said in a statement to Reuters that Kutti was not associated with the rapper or any of his businesses. at the time of the alleged incident with Freeman. CBS News has reached out to Rougier for further comment. According to the indictment, alleged co-conspirators Harrison Floyd and Stephen Lee also contacted Freeman several times on January 3, 2021 - the day before Kutti allegedly went to see Freeman to harass her. The three accomplices are also said to have contacted each other several times that day. Floyd is also said to have spoken to Freeman on the phone when Kutti was with her.
Kutti, Floyd and Lee now face conspiracy charges to solicit false statements and articles for allegedly trying to get Freeman to testify on behalf of Trump and admitting voter fraud.
CBS News has contacted Kutti about the allegations and is awaiting a response. In December 2021, Kutti repeatedly posted on Instagram about his alleged interactions with Freeman, claiming that the reports were untrue and that the media was using his previous work with West to associate him with Trump negatively. West is a prominent Trump supporter who also tried to run for president in 2020.
She announced on Instagram that she visited Freeman to hear his concerns about the incident. She said she met Freeman at a police station and an officer's camera captured their encounter. It is not clear whether these statements are accurate.
Of the 18 names listed in the 41-count indictment unsealed by Fulton County, Georgia D.A. tonight there's someone not normally associated with Donald Trump and his entourage: Trevian C. Kutti.
Although unfamiliar to cable news junkies like Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman or Mark Meadows, Kutti is well known in other circles as a former journalist for Kanye West. She is also, notably, the woman recorded on video trying to convince Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker whom Trump had publicly 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 profile from 2021 identifies her as "a member of" the Young Black Leadership Council under President Donald Trump. "as the COO of West."