Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing two of R. Kelly’s alleged victims, outlined in explicit detail the alleged sexual assault that transpired on the VHS videotape that he turned over to authorities.
At a press conference in Chicago on Friday shortly after criminal charges against Kelly were announced, Avenatti provided more detail on the content of the 40-minute videotape, which included Kelly allegedly assaulting a 14-year-girl who is heard repeatedly calling him “Daddy,” Page Six reports. The lawyer, who recovered the video and turned it over to Chicago prosecutors, is representing at least one victim identified in Kelly’s grand jury indictment.
According to Avenatti, Kelly, whose birth name is Robert Kelly, could be seen sexually assaulting the teen at his house at some point in the late ’90s — “approximately 1999.” The video is a mashup depicting two separate assaults of the same girl on two different days. On the video, the girl’s age is also apparent because both Kelly and the teenager allegedly state her name out loud.
—R. KELLY ARRESTED! Prosecutors charge singer with sexually abusing 4 people, including 3 minors—
“It is clear from other things that are depicted on the video that this was in no way role playing during some sexual act,” Avenatti said during the press conference. “Mr. Kelly throughout the video stops what he’s doing, stops his acts of sexual assault, and proceeds to move the video camera, adjust the camera angle — zooming in, changing the direction of the shot and things of that nature. So there’s no question that he knew exactly what he was doing.”
“It is clear that Mr. Kelly is having the victim watch another piece of pornography (allegedly on a big-screen television), which appears to be him with yet another young girl,” according to Avenatti.
“There are also instances of Mr. Kelly urinating on the young girl on the videotape,” he added.
And this isn’t all. Avenatti claims that there are at least two other tapes “in existence” — another of which they “are in the process of recovering,” he said.
Avenatti became a household name for serving as the lawyer representing porn star Stormy Daniels — but whom now also represents two of Kelly’s alleged victims, two parents and two “whistleblowers” who Page Six described as “knowing” Kelly and being among his “inner circle.”
“Today marks a watershed moment in the 25 years of abuse by this predator known as R. Kelly,” Avenatti said. “He — together with those that enabled him — undertook a course of action over two decades to abuse and sexually assault young girls, many of whom were the most vulnerable in society.”
In an interview on the Karen Hunter Show on SiriusXM, the lawyer said he agreed to take this case on pro bono because – with two daughters of his own – it hit home.
“I’m not charging anything for the work that I’ve done because this is an outrageous case and it’s an outrageous abuse of power, targeting some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” Avenatti said in the interview. “Mainly young African American girls, many of whom are from the inner city. And I’ve been very moved by it because I have two daughters on my own, 14 and 16, and as a father and listening to some of these parents describe what has transpired and some of these victims, I was outraged by it.”
—Jussie Smollett allegedly told police he’s battling an untreated drug addiction—
Avenatti said his investigation uncovered just how subverted the Pied Piper of R&B was, even dating back to his 2008 child pornography trial, when he allegedly committed obstruction of justice of “through threats and intimidation of witnesses,” among other things, according to Page Six.
“This trial was rigged in 2008, make no mistake about it,” blasted Avenatti. “I am highly confident that this time around the result will not be the same.”
In the first court case, Kelly was found not guilty of 14 counts of child pornography that hinged largely on a separate sex tape in 2002. Some of the allegations in that tape mirror this recent case – he allegedly urinated on another underage girl.
But there is one huge difference in the quality of the tapes, Avenatti said at Friday’s press conference: “The video is far superior,” he said.
And Avenatti also made a prediction in the SiriusXM interview: There will be a price to pay for many of the people surrounding R. Kelly who knew what he was doing and enabled his dirty deeds.
“…he had a lot of people helping him and I gotta tell you, I’m disgusted by the fact that all these people, and there were a lot of them, they participated in this criminal activity and they looked the other way, all in the interest of money,” Avenatti said. “It was all about money and taking care of the Golden Goose known as R. Kelly. And I find that equally disgusting and I think that when this whole thing is said and done, whether it be in Cook County or New York, or federal charges, there’s gonna be a lot of other people that are gonna have to account for their conduct and why they turned a blind eye to young African American girls being sexually assaulted and abused all in the interest of money.”
Listen below to audio provided by SiriusXM and SiriusXM’s The Karen Hunter Show.