Orland Park minister, Chicago publicist surrender on charges in Trump election scheme
CHICAGO - Orland Park minister Stephen Lee and Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti turned themselves in to authorities Friday morning on charges in the Georgia case alleging an illegal plot to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.
Former President Trump and 18 other associates were charged Aug. 14 in Georgia as part of a sweeping indictment alleging they schemed to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss and stop the peaceful transition of power.
Lee and Kutti were among the last to surrender on the last day of the deadline set by prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Stephen Lee worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after Trump and his allies falsely accused them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count.
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Lee allegedly knocked on Freeman’s door, frightening her and causing her to call 911 three times, prosecutors said in a court filing last year.
Prosecutors allege publicist Trevian Kutti claimed to have high level law enforcement connections. They say Freeman met with Kutti at a police precinct, where she brought Willie Lewis Floyd, also among those indicted, into the conversation on a speakerphone. Prosecutors say Kutti presented herself as someone who could help Freeman but then pressured her to falsely confess to election fraud.
FOX 32 Legal Analyst Karen Conti says prosecutors went hard after both Kutti and Lee in an effort to demonstrate a need to protect election workers.
"These are very serious charges—these are charges that have to do with racketeering, also intimidating witnesses, and also false statements in order to commit a crime and all come with sentences of five to twenty years," she said.
Kutti is one of several of the accused seen smiling in her mugshot which has given her added notoriety in a relatively short period of time.
"Most people don’t smile like that in a mugshot," Conti suggested. "My guess is that because she is a PR person she probably thinks any publicity is good publicity, so she might as well look good if her name is going to be on the news."
Both Kutti and Lee are expected to be back in Fulton County to face arraignment as early as September 5.
The 97-page, 41-count indictment names Donald Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenn Lynn Ellis, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Shawn Micah Tresher Still, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, Harrison William Prescott Floyd, Trvian C. Kutti, Sidney Powell, Cathleen "Cathy" Latham, Scott Grahama Hall, and Misty Hampton (Emily Misty Hayes).
The defendants face a slew of charges, including racketeering, violating the oath of a public officer, forgery, false statements and other offenses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.