Ruby Freeman had been publicly targeted by the Trump campaign, the right-wing media outrage machine, and now… Kanye West’s publicist?
By Jan. 4, the Atlanta elections worker and her daughter had been through hell: The Trump campaign had released selectively-edited surveillance video from a vote-counting site, falsely claiming that it showed Freeman and her daughter, both election workers, counting fraudulent ballots.
The right-wing media ecosystem pounced on Freeman, leading to constant threats and harassment, the mother-daughter duo said in a recent defamation lawsuit.
That’s when West’s publicist Trevian Kutti and an unidentified man showed up at Freeman’s door, saying she was there to help, according to a Reuters report based on police records and an interview with Freeman. Kutti also said, according to the report, that unless Freeman confessed to the crime that she did not commit, people would show up at her home and she would go to jail.
Kutti didn’t say she worked for West, but rather that she was sent to give Freeman the message by a “high-profile individual,” Reuters reported. The outlet couldn’t confirm that Kutti was still working for West.
Alarmed, Freeman had a neighbor speak with Kutti as she waited inside, the report said. Eventually, she called the police and agreed to speak with Kutti.
According to the police report, Kutti said that Freman “was in danger” and that, in 48 hours, “unknown subjects” would show up at her home.
“I cannot say what specifically will take place,” Kutti told Freeman separately at the police station, where they relocated to talk, according to Reuters. “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 reportedly said.
At that point, Kutti reportedly put a man named Harrison Ford — not the actor, Freeman later clarified — on speakerphone, who she told Freeman had “authoritative powers to get you protection.”
Freeman later recalled Kutti saying, “If you don’t tell everything, you’re going to jail.”
“The devil is a liar,” Freeman told Kutti, before calling an officer, Reuters reported.
Freeman left her home the following day at the advice of the FBI, and on Jan. 6, there was a crowd around the house, according to the defamation suit she and her daughter filed against the far-right website Gateway Pundit.
