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[Warning: This post contains descriptions of sexual misconduct with a minor.]

R. Kelly could be arrested “soon,” per a report from The New Yorker. According to the piece, a senior law enforcement official has told writer Jim DeRogatis, who’s been reporting on Kelly’s allegations of sexual assault and misconduct for more than 15 years, that “an indictm ent is pending.”


The indictment is pegged to a recently unearthed video that depicts numerous sexual acts between an underage girl and a man who is believed to be R. Kelly. According to CNN, who has viewed the footage, the 40-minute VHS tape was submitted to Chicago’s Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office last weekend by attorney Michael Avenatti. In the tape, which CNN calls “clear and explicit,” both the man and the girl refer to her genitalia as being 14 years old. The tape also has the man asking the girl to urinate on him, which she does. This behavior is consistent with the alleged acts for which Kelly was indicted in 2002 (he was acquitted six years later).

Avenatti says he received the tape from a whistleblower within Kelly’s orbit. “My client knows the identity of the girl and R. Kelly,” Avenatti said. “He identified the two of them on the videotape. He worked for and has known R. Kelly for decades and he met the girl on a number of occasions.” Avenatti adds that “the time frame of sexual assaults depicted in the video is within the Illinois statute of limitations.”


See Avenatti’s full statement on the matter below.


Steve Greenberg, a lawyer for Kelly, told CNN that he and his client “are unaware of any new information involving Mr. Kelly.” He continued, “We have not been contacted by anyone. We have not been informed about any new information by anyone and we have not been contacted by law enforcement.”

Last month, Greenberg told the Associated Press, “[Kelly] never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”