Federal prosecutors announced charges Wednesday against three men accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused R&B singer R. Kelly of abuse, multiple media outlets reported.
The allegations against the Grammy-Award-winning musician’s friends include setting a car on fire, offering half-a-million-dollar bribe and threatening to release sexually explicit photos, USA Today reported.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, where Kelly is awaiting a trial on sex crimes and racketeering charges, announced Wednesday the unsealing of three criminal complaints against Richard Arline, Jr., Donnell Russell and Michael Williams, the newspaper reported.
News: Federal prosecutors announced charges against three men accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused R&B singer R. Kelly of abuse, including one man suspected of setting fire to a vehicle in Florida. https://t.co/YTLL1mRs37
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 12, 2020
An attorney for Kelly said his client had “no involvement whatsoever” in any attempt to silence witnesses, KTLA reported.
“He hasn’t attempted to intimidate anyone, or encouraged anyone else to do so,” attorney Steve Greenberg said on Twitter.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to dozens of state and federal sexual misconduct and racketeering charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York. He is also accused of having unprotected sex with a minor in 2015 without disclosing he had herpes, KTLA reported.
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