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A former associate of Kanye West and R. Kelly is among 18 names listed in the 41-count indictment against former President Donald Trump that was unsealed Monday evening (August 14) in Fulton County, Georgia. Trevian C. Kutti is facing three charges under the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act – a law typically associated with organized crime – in which prosecutors allege the former president and his compatriots ran a “criminal enterprise “operated to keep Trump in the White House after his 2020 presidential election defeat.
According to a source formerly close to West's team, Kutti was linked to West for a time after his failed presidential bid in 2020.
Kutti previously worked as a publicist with disgraced singer R. Kelly until 2018, according to a 2020 Chicago Sun-Times article about her work as a lobbyist for marijuana legalization in Illinois. Kelly is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Chicago after being convicted of child pornography and solicitation of minor charges.
Kutti, whose unverified Instagram bio lists her as a “solutionist… equal opportunity capitalist… media manipulator,” is charged with conspiracy to incite false statements and writings and influencing witnesses. She did not respond to Billboard's request for comment on the allegations as of press time.
The latest indictment against Trump includes 41 criminal charges against 18 Trump associates, alleging actions aimed at overturning his election defeat, including Trump's famous call to Georgia's Republican secretary of state to get him to “find” enough votes to to help him win the crucial election. Additionally, a poll worker was harassed with false claims of fraud and tried to convince Georgia lawmakers to ignore the state's citizens and appoint their own slate of pro-Trump voters. In one of the most shocking allegations, the indictment says the Trump team allegedly attempted to gain access to voting machines in a rural county in order to steal data from the voting machine company.
Reuters reported that Kutti's 2021 online biography identified her as a member of the “Young Black Leadership Council under President Trump” while claiming that as of September 2018 she was “secured as Kanye West's publicist” and as his “head of operations.” In December 2021, a spokesperson for West said that Kutti was not “affiliated” with the rapper when she was accused of pressuring a Georgia election official to confess to false allegations of voter fraud.
A spokesman for Ye could not be reached for comment at press time.
Trump faces 13 charges in the case, marking the biggest potential legal threat for the twice-indicted MAGA real estate mogul, who was indicted in March in a New York case related to hush payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. He was indicted again in June by a federal grand jury in Miami in his secret documents case and earlier this month by special counsel Jack Smith as part of a federal investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
While Kutti isn't well known, some better-known names were included in the Fulton County indictment, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer (and bogus election scheme mastermind) John Eastman, another Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“I believe that the charges against me are, for lack of better words, nonsense,” Kutti reportedly said in a text to the Wall Street Journal. “I fully stand by what I told the election worker, that I was simply a crisis manager.”
Forbes reported Tuesday that in the run-up to the 2020 election, Kutti worked as a campaign manager for QAnon conspiracy supporter Angela Stanton King, who lost an election for the congressional seat held by late civil rights icon John Lewis.
Kutti also made headlines when the person Reuters said was caught on video trying to convince terrified Georgia poll worker Ruby Freeman – who had publicly attacked Trump and who later faced death threats – to Confessing to Trump's false election fraud claims by saying, “If she…” Wouldn't she have been hauled off to prison?
Count 30 of the indictment states that Kutti and two others “unlawfully conspired to solicit, encourage and coerce Ruby Freeman, a poll worker from Fulton County, Georgia, to engage in conduct constituting the crime of crime.” Statements and writings constitute OCGA § 16-10-20, “knowingly and willfully making a false statement and representation regarding the events at State Farm Arena during the Georgia presidential election on November 3, 2020.” It is also alleged, that Kutti “traveled to Fulton County, Georgia and called Ruby Freeman while he was in Fulton County, Georgia, which were blatant acts that carried out the purpose of the conspiracy contrary to the laws hereof.” The state, the good, would have order, peace and dignity.”
Count 31 alleges that on or about January 4, 2021, the trio “knowingly and unlawfully engaged in misleading conduct toward Ruby Freeman, a poll worker from Fulton County, Georgia, by stating that she was in need of protection and by pretending to offer her assistance.” Intent to influence her testimony in an official proceeding in Fulton County, Georgia, regarding events at the State Farm Arena in the Georgia presidential election on November 3, 2020, which is contrary to the laws of that state, its good order, his peace and his dignity. ”
While Trump remains the Republican presidential nominee by a wide margin despite his complex legal threats, CNN noted that the case of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will be spared from any possible interference by Trump if he is re-elected in 2024 because he would not be in the able to pardon himself or one of his associates on the state charges or fire the Fulton County prosecutors who brought the charges.
In a predictable pattern, Trump described his latest indictment as part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and called prosecutor Willis “racist and corrupt.” Giuliani, who famously used the RICO statutes to combat organized crime in New York, called the indictment “an affront to democracy.”
