Kanye’s Ex-Publicist Among Slew of Last-Minute Surrenders in Trump’s Georgia Case

Trevian Kutti, an ex-publicist for Kanye West, was among the final seven co-defendants in Donald Trump’s election interference case to surrender in Georgia with just a few hours to spare.

Kutti, who’s accused of posing as a crisis manager to try and manufacture a voter-fraud confession from local election worker Ruby Freeman, turned herself over to authorities at 10 a.m. Friday—just two hours before the court-mandated deadline. She flashed a big smile in her mugshot.

Along with other co-defendants, Kutti is accused of going on a crusade to convince Freeman to falsely confess to secretly dragging suitcases stuffed with fake ballots into the vote-counting process—a baseless conspiracy that Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and other election deniers parroted for weeks.

At one point, Kutti even showed up at Freeman’s home and told her that she “was in danger,” and had just 48 hours before “unknown subjects” would come after her, a police report said. A responding cop—still thinking Kutti was a crisis manager—suggested they continue chatting at a police station, which was recorded on video. Freeman was later found to have done nothing wrong.

The six other co-defendants to surrender between Trump’s booking on Thursday evening and Friday’s noon deadline were Trump campaign official Michael Roman, Georgia state Senator Shawn Still, former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, former Coffee County elections supervisor Misty Hampton, Atlanta attorney Bob Cheeley, and Chicago pastor Stephen Cliffgard Lee.

Lee, who was the last of the 19 co-defendants to turn himself in, surrendered at the Fulton County Jail around 11 a.m. Friday, with just an hour to spare. He was able to bond out after the MAGA podcaster Silk—of Diamond and Silk—cut him a check for $3,500 and fundraised for him on her Thursday night podcast, Lee’s attorney, David Shestokas, told The Daily Beast on Friday.

Shestokas said Silk, whose real name is Herneitha Hardaway, told her listeners that “Pastor Lee needs to be in church Sunday,” and urged them to donate to a defense fund.

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The seven final co-defendants to surrender all face charges of violating the state’s RICO Act, along with other various charges.

Roman is accused of using his campaign position to organize slates of phony pro-Trump electors to represent the electoral votes from battleground states, including Georgia. He is charged with conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiracy to commit filing false documents, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, and conspiracy to commit false statements and writings.

Still was one of the 16 “alternative” electors who met after the 2020 election to cast votes for Trump despite Joe Biden winning Georgia. He’s accused of signing false papers that said he was a legitimate presidential elector—something he now claims he did at Trump’s behest. He could be suspended from the state Senate while his case plays out.

Clark is accused of nearly sending an official DOJ letter to election officials in Georgia that was filled with lies about voter fraud, including a baseless claim that investigators had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.” He faces a count of attempting to commit false statements and writings.

The election supervisor Misty Hampton is accused of allowing Trump supporters to illegally access voting data in rural Coffee County. She told The Washington Post last year that she allowed election deniers to access the data because she didn’t trust the 2020 results herself. She faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the state, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, and conspiracy to commit computer theft.

Cheeley is the only defendant facing a charge of perjury. He’s accused of presenting video clips to the Georgia Senate that he claimed showed election workers triple-counting votes in Atlanta—something authorities determined was a lie. He’s also accused of participating in a pressure campaign against the then-speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, David Ralston, to try to will him to act on Trump’s election lies.

Lee is accused of trying to intimidate the same election worker as Kutti. He faces charges of criminal attempt to commit influencing witnesses.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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