A federal prosecutor announced charges against three men who are accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused R Kelly of abuse. All three men are connected to Kelly and used different methods of intimidation.
One man, a longtime friend of Kelly’s, is accused of offering to pay a victim $500,000 to keep her from cooperating in the prosecution. A second man, a manager and adviser, threatened to release sexually explicit photos from a woman who previously sued Kelly. The third man, related to Kelly’s publicist, Michael Williams, 37, is from Florida and accused of setting fire to a parked SUV outside of a home where one of Kelly’s victims was apparently staying.
A New York special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigation, Peter Fitzhugh, shared in a statement, “The men charged today allegedly have shown that there is no line they will not cross to help Kelly avoid the consequences of his alleged crimes – even if it means re-victimizing his accusers.”
There have been no statements released from any representative of the three men charged. However, on Twitter, Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg shared his client’s innocence, “Without question, Robert Kelly has nothing to do with any of these alleged acts by those charged. He hasn’t attempted to intimidate anyone or encourage anyone else to do so.”
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to many state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York ranging from sexual assault and having unprotected sex with a minor to organizing a scheme supplying girls.
