A publicist working for Kayne West allegedly showed up at the suburban Georgia home of a temporary election worker shortly after the 2020 election, attempting to intimidate her into admitting to manipulating votes. That’s according to a published a wild story Reuters reported on Friday.
Ruby Freeman, 62, had already been receiving death threats when Trevian Kutti came to her door on Jan. 4, 2021. Kutti provided her name but didn’t clarify that she worked for West — stating only that she was sent by an unnamed “high-profile individual” who could help her.
By that point, Freeman’s unwanted notoriety had already made her suspicious of visitors. For weeks starting Dec. 3, then-President Donald Trump has been accusing Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of voter fraud by supposedly pulling phony mail-in ballots from mysterious suitcases while working on Election Day at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. The questionable claims had already been debunked by county and state officials, but of course, that hardly put an end to the conspiracy theories.
So when Kutti warned her that if she didn’t confess to the voter fraud allegations within 48 hours she would be taken to jail, Freeman called a neighbor, and later 911, for authorities to step in.
“They’re saying that I need help, that it’s just a matter of time that they are going to come out for me and my family,” Freeman told a Cobb County police dispatcher.
The two women were taken down to the station, where their conversation was partially picked up by an officer’s bodycam footage. At one point, Tutti even told Freeman that she was going to put her on speakerphone with a man named “Harrison Ford” who could help her.
“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.
Eventually, Freeman grew impatient with Kutti’s continued claims and only discovered that she was a Trump supporter when she later arrived home and Googled her name. However, 48 hours later, on Jan. 6, the same day as the United States Capitol insurrection, Freeman’s home was indeed surrounded by a “mob of angry Trump supporters” armed with bullhorns, according to a defamation suit filed last week. Freeman had only narrowly escaped encountering the mob, leaving hours earlier.
The story adds yet another bizarre chapter into Trump’s very much ongoing election fraud claims. And as word began to make its way around the internet, the consensus seems to be that this is a pretty bad look for West, who legally changed his name to “Ye” in October.
NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins called the harassment of Freeman “some of the worst [he’s] ever seen.”
Meta’s Tom Gara weighed in, calling the story “completely insane.”
Former journalist Helen Kennedy weighed in, saying that the authorities didn’t do enough to help Freeman.
With the Jan. 6 committee in full swing, it seems likely that Kayne West, or at least people working for him, may have waded into federal criminal territory with this stunt. At the very least, it seems that Pete Davdison may now be the least of the artist’s problems, anyway.