After R. Kelly was indicted on 10 charges of sexual abuse in Chicago Friday morning, attorney Michael Avenatti shared more details of a tape he claims shows the R&B singer reportedly assaulting a minor, including screenshots.
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Avenatti posted screenshots from the clip on Twitter Friday, claiming they show Kelly in the video.
The attorney, who gained national attention for representing porn star Stormy Daniels, gave the tape to Chicago prosecutors last week. Avenatti said his office was hired in April 2018 over allegations of sexual assault against Kelly. During their 10-month investigation, his office obtained the VHS tape from someone who knew Kelly and the minor in the video, reports ABC7.
During his press conference Friday afternoon, Avenatti said the video was likely shot in the late 1990s, possibly in 1999. It includes two scenes filmed over two days inside Kelly’s residence at the time. He claimed the tape is in much better quality than the tape at the center of Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial, which ended with Kelly being acquitted.
According to Avenatti, the victim and Kelly both mention her being 14 years old at the time the tape was made several times. Kelly is also seen stopping to adjust the camera and the video begins with Kelly appearing to have the victim watch another tape with him and another young girl.
Avenatti said he gave the tape to the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office within days of receiving the video. He said his office is trying to obtain two other tapes, which he plans to turn over as well once they have them.
The attorney said his clients in the Kelly case are two victims, two parents and two former members of Kelly’s circle who came forward.
“It’s over 40 minutes in length (the tape). It leaves no question as to Mr. Kelly’s guilt. He is visible in the tape. It is absolutely him. The victim is 14 years of age. Both he and the victim refer to her being 14 years of age on at least 10 occasions on the tape,” Avenatti told WGN of the tape.
He later added, “I am confident the 25-year run of Robert Kelly (R. Kelly) sexually abusing and assaulting young girls is about to come to an end, finally.”
Avenatti also claimed he had evidence that Kelly and his team “rigged” the 2008 trial to make sure it ended with an acquittal. At the time, Kelly and the woman in that video denied they were the people in it, and the woman did not testify.
“Effectively, what they did was they rigged the trial in 2008 to assure Mr. Kelly’s acquittal,” Avenatti told WGN. “Again, I am highly confident that this tape, and the evidence we provided, is the major break in the case that so many victims have been waiting for.”
On Friday night, Kelly turned himself in to police after Foxx announced Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The indictment details the alleged sexual abuse of four victims, including minors aged 13 to 16 at the time of the abuse, between 1998 and 2000. The grand jury was convened after Avenatti turned in the video, and a month after Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly renewed interest in the sexual abuse allegations Kelly has faced for more than two decades.
Kelly has denied the allegations.
Photo credit: Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images
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