R Kelly charged with bribing official for fake ID ‘to marry singer Aaliyah when she was just 15’
RAPPER R Kelly has been charged with bribing a government official to get a fake ID for the 15-year-old singer he allegedly married 25 years ago.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have accused Kelly of bribing an Illinois government worker in 1994 to obtain the fake doc for teen starlet Aaliyah, according to the indictment.
It claims the ID was to be used to get a marriage license that listed her age as 18.
Brooklyn prosecutors had already charged R Kelly with racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor and sexual exploitation.
They alleged he and his employees and assistants picked out women and girls at concerts and groomed them for sexual abuse.
The 52-year-old singer, who is being held without bond, is scheduled to stand trial in federal court in Chicago in April on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges before facing trial in Brooklyn.
Kelly, whose given name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was acquitted in 2008 on charges of videotaping himself having sex with a girl who prosecutors allege was as young as 13.
'ABSURD'
The RnB singer has repeatedly denied all allegations - and his attorney Douglas Anton called the latest charge "ridiculous and absurd".
The US Attorney's office declined to comment about who the fake ID was meant for, and the indictment didn't mention the wedding.
But a source familiar with the investigation confirmed the "Jane Doe" mentioned in the indictment was Aaliyah.
It also didn't identify the person who was allegedly paid the bribe in order to get the fake ID - except to say that the person was a public employee.
'MARRIED AT 15'
Kelly, then 27, and Aaliyah are said to have married in a secret ceremony at a Chicago hotel a day after obtaining the fake ID.
However, both Kelly and Aaliyah always denied the marriage even took place - and insisted their relationship was never more than friends.
In the past, Kelly's representatives also denied that he knew Aaliyah was 15 at the time they were apparently married.
But footage emerged earlier this year appearing to prove that R Kelly DID know Aaliyah's age - 14 months before their alleged wedding.
The video shows the young starlet in a recording studio being produced by Kelly, who references her age in a voice-over.
FAKE ID BOMBSHELL
This was said to have been filmed just months before he married her when she was aged 15 - despite his lawyer claiming he never knew her real age when they wed, reports.
In the 1994 video, Kelly is heard saying: "Right now I'm producing a very talented lady - a young lady. She's 14, Aaliyah."
The singers had been introduced to each other three years previously by Aaliyah's uncle.
The alleged marriage was apparently annulled in February 1995 at the request of the teen's family.
In the 2019 documentary Surviving R Kelly, his backing singer Jovante Cunningham claims that she saw the star having sex with a then 15-year-0ld Aaliyah on a tour bus in 1994.
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When asked what she saw, the back-up singer replied: “Things that an adult should not be doing with a child.
"I can’t stress to you how people are still suffering behind things that went on 20 years ago."
But Aaliyah’s furious mum, Diane Haughton, later claimed Cunningham was "a liar".
Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, tragically died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22.