“I’m now not going to plead out to a lie,” Lee stated Thursday. “I’m now not going to cooperate with evil. I’m now not going to do one thing this is going to consume away or damage our First Modification rights … That is the Lord’s combat, and we’ve were given to battle it.”
Lee is accused of conspiring with the hip-hop publicist Trevian Kutti and previous Trump marketing campaign staffer Harrison Floyd to check out to coerce a Georgia election employee into falsely confessing to serving to rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
This not likely trio is one of the least-known Trump supporters going through fees in Fulton County. Their indictments display how Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election pulled in American citizens from many walks of existence — now not simply elected officers and high-powered attorneys, but additionally low-level marketing campaign staffers and peculiar supporters.
Whilst more-prominent defendants, together with the attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, have pleaded in charge within the case, those 3 have signaled that they’re prepared to face through the previous president as he continues to assert falsely that the 2020 election used to be stolen, even supposing that suggests going through jail time. They have turn out to be inspirations to Trump’s maximum ardent enthusiasts, particularly as they proceed to fundraise to pay their attorneys.
It’s unclear how the 3 got here in combination after the 2020 election — or what connections that they had, if any, to the perfect ranges of the Trump marketing campaign. However in contrast to different defendants who’re accused of attacking democracy widely, the 3 are speculated to have focused a person election employee within the Atlanta house, Ruby Freeman.
As Trump, his non-public lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others falsely focused Freeman, the 3 introduced to assist her navigate the manufactured disaster. Prosecutors allege what they actually sought after to do used to be create a justification for Republicans in Congress to reject the election effects on Jan. 6, 2021.
The indictment main points a top-to-bottom community: Concurrently Trump and his high-profile allies have been pressuring governors, state lawmakers and contributors of Congress to do so to overturn the election, a few of his lesser-known backers singled out the ones on the lowest finish of the hierarchy of election management, together with Freeman.
Their alleged plan fizzled, and they’re now charged along Trump with taking part in a sprawling conspiracy to scouse borrow an American election. All 3 have pleaded now not in charge to racketeering, influencing witnesses and conspiracy to solicit false statements. They may quickly sit down along the previous president in a court.
Kutti, the publicist, talks overtly on social media in regards to the headline-making enjoy, taunting detractors in memes and suggesting she will have to be Trump’s subsequent press secretary. Floyd, the previous Trump marketing campaign aide, flustered prosecutors this summer season when he disregarded provides to barter bail and spent 5 nights within the infamous Fulton County Prison. Floyd is the usage of this example to check out to as soon as once more litigate whether or not the 2020 election used to be stolen, difficult get right of entry to to vote casting mechanical device information, absentee poll envelopes and different fabrics lengthy sought through election conspiracy theorists.
Conservative YouTube host Gary Franchi hit on that very same theme because the emcee for Lee’s fundraiser on Thursday night time now not some distance from Chicago. “That election used to be stolen appropriate out from beneath each unmarried American,” Franchi stated, in spite of a loss of proof supporting that statement in regards to the 2020 effects.
“I would like each and every one in every of you to assume: What are you able to give this night?” Franchi requested the group of about 100. “How are you able to reinforce this combat? As it’s now not only a combat for the pastor. This can be a combat for the Charter of the US, for the rights which can be enshrined in our Invoice of Rights, passed down through our writer which can be beneath direct attack through the devils who by hook or by crook in finding themselves in positions of energy.”
He stretched his arm above his head and held up a $100 invoice. “I’ll be the primary. I’ve $100 appropriate right here,” he stated. “Who can fit me on this $100? Lift your hand if you’ll be able to fit this $100.”
Just about 3 years in the past, at a Georgia legislative listening to a month after the election, an lawyer volunteering for Trump’s marketing campaign offered a snippet of grainy surveillance video of vote counting in downtown Atlanta. Trump supporters inaccurately stated that it confirmed the ballot employees, later recognized as Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, conspiring to transparent ballot observers from the room in order that they might produce “suitcases” full of fraudulent ballots.
Georgia’s peak election officers briefly debunked the claims, however Trump’s marketing campaign and conservative media handled it as true and persisted to unfold it to their huge audiences.
Trump performed the video at a rally in Georgia, and Giuliani amplified it on social media and in interviews.
Days after the president’s rally, Giuliani instructed Georgia lawmakers at every other listening to that the photos confirmed the election employees exchanging USB reminiscence sticks that he implied contained fraudulent vote counts, “as though they [were] vials of heroin or cocaine.” Freeman later stated she had handed her daughter a ginger mint, now not a reminiscence stick.
Representatives for Trump and Giuliani didn’t reply to requests for remark. In an ongoing defamation lawsuit, Giuliani just lately stopped contesting as a prison subject that he made false statements about Freeman.
By means of mid-December, Freeman’s touch knowledge used to be circulating, and Trump supporters have been calling and sending vicious and racist messages. They instructed her that she used to be going to “rot in hell,” Freeman instructed Area investigators. Some messages indicated that strangers knew the place she lived, “And we’re coming to get you, n—–.”
She lived by myself and used to be scared. Folks have been appearing up in her group, some with bullhorns, Freeman instructed investigators.
Certainly one of them used to be Lee, a preacher at a Lutheran church in suburban Chicago who drove 10 hours to Freeman’s space.
It used to be Dec. 14, 2020, the day that electoral school contributors in each state met and the similar day that Republicans in Georgia and a few different states signed official-looking forms falsely claiming that Trump had received their states.
A former police officer and regulation enforcement chaplain, Lee had recommended law enforcement officials throughout one of the most country’s darkest hours, together with the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine Prime Faculty taking pictures and the 11th of September, 2001, terrorist assaults.
Now, he used to be on a undertaking to assist Trump, prosecutors allege.
Lee talked to Freeman’s neighbor and offered himself as a minister, Freeman recounted throughout a decision to 911.
“He thinks he can assist me and my daughter out,” Freeman instructed the dispatcher.
Wearing a black blouse and white clerical collar, Lee returned day after today. He rapped on her door, prompting her to see thru a rest room window and phone 911, as she had a number of different occasions since being falsely accused.
“I’m now not right here to harm her,” Lee stated when an officer approached him in his pink Ford, in line with body-camera photos first reported through Reuters final yr. “I’m now not right here to motive any issues or the rest like that.” He requested the officer if he would facilitate a gathering between him and Freeman.
“You could wish to let her know that I’ve were given some professional bono carrier for her, if she’s ,” Lee stated.
When she didn’t take him up at the be offering, in line with the indictment, Lee instructed Floyd that Freeman, who’s Black, used to be afraid to speak to him as a result of he’s a White guy. Floyd, who’s Black, in brief ran as a GOP congressional candidate within the Atlanta house earlier than directing Black Voices for Trump for the president’s marketing campaign.
Lee has declined to mention why he went to Georgia, however his attorney on Thursday famous the pastor is interested in crisis. “Why would he pass down on Floor 0? Why would he pass to [Hurricane] Katrina? Why would he pass to Columbine?” lawyer David Shestokas stated at Lee’s fundraiser. “Perhaps it’s as a result of there used to be chaos and disaster in The united states, , happening in Georgia at the moment.”
After Lee’s visits to Freeman’s space, the efforts to coerce a false confession from Freeman perceived to quickly subside.
3 weeks later, on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump referred to as Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and instructed him to disqualify sufficient votes to overturn his slim loss. He invoked Freeman’s title 18 occasions, describing her as “a qualified vote scammer and hustler,” and claimed with out proof that she by myself “filled the poll packing containers” with sufficient “phony ballots” to switch the election consequence.
“You realize the web? You realize what used to be trending on the web? ‘The place’s Ruby?’ As a result of they concept she’d be in detention center. ‘The place’s Ruby?’” Trump stated, in line with a recording of the decision printed through The Washington Put up day after today.
The frenzied plan to acquire a confession from Freeman used to be underway once more.
Floyd referred to as Freeman two times in fast succession at the night time of Jan. 3, however she didn’t pick out up. He referred to as Kutti, the publicist whom Floyd has stated he met at a Trump rally. Over the following two hours, Floyd texted Freeman and traded a chain of calls with Lee and Kutti, in line with the indictment.
Floyd contacted Freeman as a result of “he concept she wanted assist,” stated one in every of Floyd’s legal professionals, Chris Kachouroff. He didn’t say why Floyd believed she wanted assist or how he concept he may assist her, however he stated Floyd didn’t do the rest unsuitable. “There’s now not some grand conspiracy,” Kachouroff stated in an interview.
Day after today, Kutti traveled from Chicago to Atlanta and arrived unannounced at Freeman’s neighbor’s doorstep.
“I’m a disaster supervisor,” Kutti stated, in line with a recording Freeman performed for police. “I paintings for one of the most largest names within the trade. I used to be given a decision that she wanted assist in a state of affairs and so they flew me right here to assist her. We don’t have a large number of time, however I’m right here. Let her know that we’re now not affiliated with the rest or any one, however there are a few things she will have to know, and he or she will have to know straight away.”
After calling the police, Freeman agreed to satisfy with Kutti at a close-by police station, in line with the indictment. There, they spoke for greater than an hour.
Kutti warned Freeman that one thing would occur quickly that “will disrupt your freedom,” in line with photos from a close-by police officer’s physique digicam. “You’re a unfastened finish for a birthday celebration that should tidy up,” she instructed Freeman.
Kutti’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg, declined to give an explanation for the remark, however stated that Kutti had now not accomplished the rest unlawful. “I believe the whole thing accomplished through my shopper used to be accomplished in truth, overtly,” he stated. “She talked to this woman at a police station with any person filming — an officer filming the entire thing. There’s clearly no felony intent and I believe there’s First Modification issues [with the prosecution].”
Kutti instructed Freeman she used to be going to name Floyd, announcing he had “authoritative powers to get you coverage.” Sitting silently through Kutti right through the dialog used to be Garrison Douglas, who had chauffeured the publicist round the city and had labored with Floyd at Black Voices for Trump. Douglas, who now works as a spokesman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), stated he “had no involvement within the assembly past the duty of riding, and I testified to that reality to the Fulton County particular grand jury.”
A lot of the interplay passed off off-camera since the officer stepped away when Kutti stated that they have been seeking to have “a dialog between non-public electorate.”
The dialogue ended when Freeman leaped out of her chair and instructed Kutti, “The satan is a liar,” Freeman instructed Reuters in 2021. After their dialog on the police station, she seemed up Kutti’s title on-line and came upon that she used to be a Trump supporter.
Freeman felt betrayed. The enjoy left her feeling much more unsafe, even in her own residence, stated the ones accustomed to her pondering on the time.
“Lo and behold, when any person as robust because the President of the US eggs on a mob, that mob will come,” Freeman instructed the Area committee that investigated the assault at the Capitol. “They got here for us with their cruelty, their threats, their racism. …”
After the 3 have been indicted in August, Kutti used to be the primary to show herself in for processing. For her reserving photograph, the 53-year-old wore a camouflage jacket and smiled extensively. She promptly posted it on her Instagram account.
“Freedom,” she wrote, “isn’t loose.”
Earlier than Kutti sponsored Trump, she supported Hillary Clinton, donating $3,575 to her 2008 run for president.
By means of 2020, she used to be keeping a Black Voices for Trump signal on the Trump rally in Tulsa within the early levels of the fatal pandemic. The coalition drew advisers like Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That yr, Kutti ran the unsuccessful congressional marketing campaign of Angela Stanton-King, the goddaughter of Alveda King and a QAnon-promoting former fact TV famous person from Georgia whom Trump pardoned for a 2004 conspiracy conviction associated with a car-theft ring.
Kutti as soon as represented R&B singer R. Kelly, who’s serving a 30-year jail sentence for racketeering and intercourse trafficking, and rapper Ye, previously Kanye West, whom she cheered in 2020 when he made a long-shot bid for president. Kutti, who has labored as a lobbyist for the hashish trade in Illinois, halfway thru 2020 started posting much less on Instagram in regards to the leisure trade and extra in regards to the MAGA motion and her position in it.
“NEW CLIENT ALERT: Simply inked Mike Lindell on a Gulfstream G650,” Kutti posted on social media in the summertime of 2020.
Lindell, the MyPillow founder and distinguished election denier, instructed The Put up that he had by no means employed Kutti “and handiest met her as soon as.”
Days earlier than she confirmed up on Freeman’s doorstep, Kutti posted a mash-up of footage from 2020 that confirmed her proximity to high-profile Trump supporters, together with Floyd. She captioned the photograph: “The neatest black guy in politics.”
She additionally had a message for the president: “if you’re going to convey us Patriots to D.C. on January sixth, you higher unharness each army and Govt energy it’s important to save our Republic. DO IT,” she posted on Instagram.
Floyd, the political activist
Floyd used to be the following of the 3 to give up. He live-streamed his force towards downtown Atlanta with the caption: “Lord Give protection to Me Whilst Im In Those Streets.”
Whilst the opposite defendants negotiated their bail forward of time to keep away from being detained, Floyd confirmed up on the detention center and “mainly simply begged to be booked in,” Fulton County District Legal professional Fani T. Willis instructed one in every of Floyd’s attorneys, in line with a recording bought through the Atlanta Magazine-Charter. Floyd’s lawyer disputed that account.
A reserving photograph presentations Floyd, 39, in a get dressed blouse and swimsuit coat. He gave the impression later at a digital court docket listening to dressed in a army blue jail-issued uniform.
He alleged that he used to be stored at the back of bars for 5 nights as a result of he’s Black. He stated at a information convention that Willis, who’s Black, gave him “a Negro serious warning call as a result of she is reminding me that our nation and the state of Georgia will be unable to be a righteous country if we stand on pillars of corruption, racism, mendacity and dishonest.”
Floyd, a former Marine machine-gunner, introduced he used to be exploring shifting again to Georgia from Maryland so he may once more run for Congress: “I’m coming again right here to get issues appropriate.”
The feedback attracted large acclaim from MAGA influencers, together with 1000’s of greenbacks for his protection fund. He has insisted on his innocence and steered he would produce proof that he 2020 election used to be rigged, in spite of repeated opinions confirming Biden’s victory. Floyd has now not answered to requests for remark.
Floyd used to be paid about $136,000 through Trump’s marketing campaign for a yr and a part of labor on outreach to Black electorate, in line with marketing campaign finance information. His time at the payroll ended simply earlier than he joined up with Kutti and Lee, in line with indictment and marketing campaign finance information.
In February, FBI brokers served Floyd with a federal grand jury subpoena as a part of particular recommend Jack Smith’s separate investigation into Trump’s try to overturn the 2020 election. Floyd slammed into probably the most brokers and knocked him again as he swore at him, in line with a misdemeanor attack fee that used to be filed in opposition to Floyd. That case is pending.
Throughout his first court docket look within the Georgia case, Floyd stated he were instructed that hiring an lawyer would price $40,000 to $200,000 — way over he may manage to pay for. Quickly later on, right-wing activist Laura Loomer and others instructed folks to assist him. Inside of weeks, he raised greater than $325,000.
Throughout an interview on former Trump adviser Stephen Ok. Bannon’s podcast in past due August, Floyd doubled down on his assaults on govt establishments.
“Fulton County fumbled the coverup, and I’m acutely aware of what transpired and so they’re seeking to put drive on me and others to make certain that the reality doesn’t pop out,” he stated. “I’m browsing ahead to being down right here preventing the satan in Georgia.”
Lee used to be the final of the nineteen defendants to show himself in. Dressed in his clerical collar, he seemed subdued in his mug shot. He didn’t afford to publish his bond and his lawyer stated he stayed out of detention center handiest as a result of a last-minute donation from conservative communicate display host Rochelle “Silk” Richardson.
Lee began his profession in regulation enforcement, then went to seminary within the Nineteen Eighties and shaped the nonprofit Police Officer Ministries.
Lee and his lawyer would now not say when or how Lee got here to grasp Floyd and Kutti.
Lee’s backers have dubbed him “The united states’s chaplain.” An Illinois-based Christian workforce stated it has raised about $20,000 for him, partially through promoting Trump-shaped bottles of honey to boost cash for his prison protection, and supporters are instructed to make use of the promotional code “chaplain.”
Lee expressed reinforce for Trump early on, writing in a February 2017 electronic mail to supporters of his ministry that he had talked to any person from Trump’s transition staff about making a volunteer police chaplaincy program. He incorporated a photograph of himself status in entrance of Trump Tower. “The president has issued a clarion name to make The united states nice once more and drain the swamp,” the record stated. “Regardless of how we voted within the fresh election, we will have to all reinforce those noble targets.”
Lee in most cases avoids politicking from the pulpit. At the Sunday after he used to be indicted, he remarked at the partisan divides that regularly tear aside The united states’s civic discourse. “Some folks if truth be told pour gasoline at the hearth and consider battle as a chance to push a selected schedule,” he preached.
At the Sunday after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the Capitol, Lee didn’t speak about the attack on The united states’s seat of democracy however touched on conservatives’ questions on the result of the 2020 election.
“Had been there irregularities?” he requested. “Was once there fraud? Is it conspiracy idea? Is that this workforce loopy? Is that workforce loopy? … Some issues simply appear intractable.”
Two and a part years later, because the fundraiser for his prison protection fund wound down, Lee wrapped his arm round his spouse of 4 a long time and bowed his head. Participants of the target market raised their fingers to bless the couple.
“See, we’re going to bother them through our prayers,” Latasha Fields, the founding father of a Christian home-schooling reinforce workforce, preached. “We’re going to weary Georgia within the title of Jesus. We’re going to weary the judges within the title of Jesus.”
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reported from Phoenix and Adriana Usero reported from Washington. Alice Crites, Amy Gardner, Holly Bailey and Jacqueline Alemany contributed to this record.
