R. Kelly Arrested on Child Pornography and Other Federal Charges
The singer R. Kelly, already under indictment in Chicago on state charges of aggravated sexual assault and abuse, was arrested Thursday night by federal agents on charges related to child pornography and other federal crimes, officials said.
Mr. Kelly was taken into custody over a 13-count indictment that includes enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice, in addition to the child pornography charges, said Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, an assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Kelly was arrested in Chicago.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are expected to unveil a separate indictment on Friday containing additional charges against Mr. Kelly, according to two law enforcement officials.
Mr. Kelly is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in federal court in Chicago. Both officials said he would ultimately be brought to New York to face the charges here, though the timing has yet to be determined.
The federal charges deepen the legal morass for Mr. Kelly, who has been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct for decades but was acquitted on state child pornography charges in 2008.
Mr. Kelly, 52, whose real name is Robert S. Kelly, already faces more than a dozen state felony charges related to sexual abuse accusations in Chicago involving four women, three of whom were underage at the time, prosecutors said.
He was charged with 10 state counts in February, with more state charges filed against him in May. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
His lawyer declined to comment Thursday night on the latest federal charges.
Mr. Kelly’s arrest makes for the second case in a week in which the federal authorities have pursued high-profile figures for charges related to sexual abuse involving minors. Jeffrey Epstein, the New York financier, who for years has faced allegations involving underage girls, was arrested on Saturday and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
The longstanding accusations against Mr. Kelly received renewed attention in recent months. A six-part documentary profiling some of his accusers aired in January, and Mr. Kelly’s remarkable interview with Gayle King in March gripped the nation’s attention.
Suspicion has loomed over Mr. Kelly since his brief marriage, in 1994, to the singer Aaliyah when she was 15. He was tried in 2008 on child pornography charges stemming from a 27-minute tape in which prosecutors said he had sex with and urinated on a teenage girl. He was acquitted on all counts after the girl declined to testify against him.
Yet, even as the allegations trailed him, his career continued to flourish. He performed at the World Cup in the summer of 2010 and released an album in December of that year called “Love Letter.”
In 2017, Jim DeRogatis, who in 2000 was the first journalist to document claims against Mr. Kelly, wrote an article published by Buzzfeed in which women in Mr. Kelly’s social circle depicted an abusive cultlike atmosphere.
“Surviving R. Kelly,” the six-part documentary that was broadcast by Lifetime, detailed alarming accusations about his treatment of women.
The documentary prompted investigations by Atlanta, Chicago and federal law enforcement officials. In Illinois, the Cook County state’s attorney, Kim Foxx, asked any victims to come forward. Some did, leading to his arrest on state charges in February.
His explosive interview with Ms. King, which aired on her program “CBS This Morning,” gave the case renewed national attention. Mr. Kelly sought to portray himself as a victim, targeted by a smear campaign. He forcefully denied the claims against him, at one point staring directly into the camera, tears in his eyes, and said, “I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me!”
Jacey Fortin and Ashley Southall contributed reporting.
Rick Rojas has been a staff reporter for The New York Times since 2014. He has been a regional correspondent for the Metro staff covering New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and has reported from The Times’ bureaus at 1 Police Plaza and in Phoenix and Sydney, Australia. @RaR
Mihir Zaveri covers breaking news from New York. Before joining The Times in 2018 he was a reporter for The Houston Chronicle.
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