Lawyer Michael Avenatti claims he turned over a newly uncovered VHS videotape that shows singer R. Kelly allegedly performing sex acts with an underage girl. Avenatti said in a statement on Thursday that he recently uncovered the 45-minute long VHS videotape.
Avenatti said the tape was recorded in Chicago in the late 1990s, which would put Kelly in his late 20s or early 30s. He said the tape has never been publicly disclosed or provided to law enforcement.
According to Yahoo News, CNN viewed the videotape and said the tape appears to show the girl identifying her genitals as 14-years-old. CNN said the girl appeared to be an active participant in multiple sex acts with the troubled singer/songwriter.
Whether the girl is a willing participant is irrelevant since the age of consent in Illinois is 17.
Avenatti told The Huffington Post he is representing a man who is a “whistleblower” against Kelly and that he handed the tape over to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago last weekend.
The tape is similar to one that was leaked online in 2002 and was viewed by millions of Internet users on adult porn websites. The 2002 tape showed Kelly urinating on a 14-year-old girl. Kelly was acquitted in a criminal trial related to the girl in the 2008 tape.
Kelly dominated the headlines in January when Lifetime Network aired a documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which featured interviews by several adult women who accused him of abuse and kidnapping.
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