Trevian Kutti, one of 15 remaining co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and others, has been mirroring the former president’s defense strategy.
While many of the co-defendants have gone tight-lipped and refrained from speaking much, if at all, about the case, Kutti — like Trump — has ranted about it on social media.
But unlike the former president, who’s privileged to have high-powered lawyers and an ongoing political campaign that’s shielded him from accountability despite seeming to defy the terms of his bond agreement, Kutti may not be so fortunate.
The liberal website MeidasTouch wrote about an Instagram Live video Kutti posted on Nov. 26 in which she appeared to reference state witness Ruby Freeman, a former Georgia election worker falsely accused by Trump and his allies of election fraud.
According to MeidasTouch, Kutti said:
[T]here’s a woman sitting somewhere who knows this whole thing is a lie. Who knows I never did anything to her. Who knows I never. Who knows she begged me for help. There’s a woman sitting somewhere who knows that I’m going to f— her whole life up when this is done.”
Kutti, a publicist who previously worked with rapper Ye (aka Kanye West), didn’t mention Freeman by name in her Instagram Live, but the details suggest that’s who she was talking about. Kutti, former Trump campaign aide Harrison Floyd and Lutheran pastor Stephen Lee are all accused in the Trump RICO indictment of trying to coerce Freeman into falsely confessing to election fraud. Kutti was filmed trying to pressure Freeman — under the guise of offering help — into a false confession in a video that was published by Reuters in 2021.
(All of the 19 original co-defendants — including Kutti, Floyd and Lee — initially pleaded not guilty in the case. Four co-defendants — Scott Hall, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis — have since pleaded guilty as part of plea deals.)
In a tweet Monday, Kutti railed against MeidasTouch’s Ron Filipkowski following the report about her Instagram Live post and suggested she would potentially take legal action against the website.
As some legal experts have noted, the diatribe, along with other remarks in Kutti’s video that seem to refer to the case, may have broken Kutti’s bond agreement not to publicly comment on — or threaten — witnesses.
Kutti attorney Steve Greenberg told CNN that his client did “absolutely nothing wrong” in her Instagram Live.
“People have the right even when they are out on bond to comment on their cases. She didn’t threaten anybody. She said that she didn’t do anything wrong, which is a fact,” Greenberg said.
I’ve written previously about Kutti and Floyd embracing Trumpian tactics of using social media in an apparent effort to try their cases in the court of public opinion. Floyd appears to have taken a more measured approach on social media after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought to have a judge revoke his bond. The judge overseeing the case said Floyd’s posts aimed at Freeman and other witnesses may have been a “technical violation” of his bond, but the judge refused to revoke it and instead ordered the addition of social media restrictions to his agreement.
Kutti, on the other hand, has shown no signs of relenting in her unhinged rants. And that might just be a matter for the district attorney’s office and judge to address.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.