When Kim Kardashian returned this week from vacation, where she reportedly worked on her troubled marriage to Kanye West, the self-styled criminal justice reform advocate announced her latest cause celebre: trying to help exonerate Corey Miller, the rapper known as C-Murder, who was convicted of murder in 2002.
But as soon as Kardashian, 39, announced on Twitter that she was joining efforts to free the imprisoned rapper, she faced renewed questions about West’s presidential election shenanigans.
People called her out and asked what she was going to do about her husband and his potentially harmful election bid. West, 43, has been accused of overseeing either a vanity project or a spoiler campaign that has allegedly engaged in election fraud and received help from Republican operatives to siphon votes away from Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“Maybe you can tell that husband of your to stop committing election fraud. #boycottkardashians,” one Twitter user wrote in reply to her announcement about joining her joining the legal team to “#FreeCoreyMiller.”
Maybe you can tell that husband of your to stop committing election fraud. #boycottkardashians @ultabeauty for election fraud
— Denise Wu (@denisewu) August 16, 2020
“First work on your family and relationship,” tweeted another.
A self-described Kardashian fan named Naomi spoke to the complicated nature of criticizing the aspiring lawyer when she is announcing her dedication to a good cause.
“I hate saying this because I love Kim and I’m all for fighting for the wrongfully convicted, but I don’t know if can trust her judgment as a lawyer when she’s married to someone committing election fraud and submitting fake signatures,” Naomi tweeted.
Miller, 49, is serving a life sentence in Louisiana for a killing at a New Orleans-area nightclub in 2002. Miller lost an appeal in 2019 to have the conviction thrown out; his attorneys have argued about irregularities in the jury deliberations at trial, and witnesses have recanted their testimonies.
When someone told Naomi it’s not fair to expect Kardashian to control her husband, especially when he reportedly is having a bipolar disorder episode and refuses to take his medication, Naomi responded: “Agreed 100%. But Kim should know that your one true asset as a lawyer is your credibility, and publicly supporting a potential criminal is how you instantly get a reputation for being shady. Most lawyers don’t recover from that.”
The timing of Kardashian’s announcement of support for the “Free Corey Miller” movement also raised questions about whether her advocacy is a publicity stunt to deflect attention from her husband’s election issues. His controversy has become hers.
“#BoycottKardashian” became a trending topic on Twitter after the New York Times, New York Magazine and other outlets reported that Republican operatives were helping to get West’s name on the ballot in multiple states. Questions also have arisen about the legitimacy of the signatures on West’s petition in Wisconsin. West didn’t deny to a Forbes editor that he was running a spoiler campaign meant to hurt Biden.
Last week, the New York Times also reported that West met with Jared Kushner when he was traveling in Colorado with Kardashian. Kushner serves as the de facto chief of Trump’s reelection campaign, and he and Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, work as senior White House advisors.
Kardashian developed close ties with Kushner and Ivanka Trump through her work with the Trump administration on criminal justice reform. Both West and Kushner denied talking about West’s campaign during their meeting or during other phone chats the two reportedly have on a regular basis.
U.S. Senator Cory Booker this week accused the Trump campaign of trying to “gin up” West’s candidacy and called the whole effort “insulting to African Americans … to think that we’re gonna somehow be swayed away and vote for someone who is not a serious person in this election.”
On Tuesday, People published a sympathetic report that suggested that Kardashian was trying to put some distance — geographical and otherwise — between herself and her husband. As West insists on continuing his presidential campaign, Kardashian and their four young children left him behind on the family’s ranch in Wyoming and returned to Los Angeles, People said.
Before an emotional reunion in Wyoming and a week-long vacation in the Dominican Republic, Kardashian, People reported, had been preparing to end the marriage because of West’s erratic behavior since announcing his run for president. At a rally in South Carolina and on Twitter, he shared disturbing details about marriage and his family.
“Kim still seems focused on making her marriage work,” a source told People. “She is pretty quiet about her exact plans for the future, but for now she seems okay with Kanye living in Wyoming. He is moving ahead with the presidential campaign. This is a decision that no one can change his mind about.”
This People report, however, sparked more backlash against Kardashian and West. Among the critical comments on People’s tweet about the story: “Stop doing puff pieces on someone who is actively trying to illegally interfere in an election.”
Kardashian also was unable to avoid discussion about West’s campaign after she posted several other apparently well-intentioned tweets.
On Sunday, West reinstated his Sunday Service and gospel choir performances outdoors at their ranch in Cody, Wyoming. Kardashian assured fans on Twitter that “Kanye’s team took every precaution to ensure the choir’s health and safety,” but the tweet still drew criticism.
“If he truly cares about Americans he’ll stop trying to make a laughing stock of our election process. He’ll bow out of the election & stop doing Trumps dirty work,” someone replied.
If he truly cares about Americans he’ll stop trying to make a laughing stock of our election process. He’ll bow out of the election & stop doing Trumps dirty work.
— Suzyque (@LoweSuzyque225) August 17, 2020
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