R. Kelly Is Trying To Get His 30-Year Prison Sentence Reversed & Money Back From the Federal Government
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Updated on Wednesday, March 20 at 1:30 p.m.PT: Less than 48 hours after disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly decided to sue the U.S. government in an an attempt to receive the funds from his label, the “Ignition” singer is trying yet another legal move.
Per AP, Kelly has filed an appeal to get his 2021 conviction and 30-year sentence reversed or to receive a new trial all together. The appeal was argued by his lawyer Jennifer Bonjean to three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Monday where she alleged that the charge of racketeering lobbed against her client essentially wasn’t sufficient enough for a conviction due to what she argues should constitute a RICO enterprise.
“This was not a collection of people who had a purpose to recruit girls for sexual abuse or child pornography,” Bonjean argued. “Whether they turned a blind eye, whether some of them suspected that some of these girls were underage, that’s a whole different matter. And once we get into that sort of territory, where we’re going to say that constitutes a RICO enterprise, well we have a lot of organizations — we have a lot of frat houses — we have all types of organizations that are now going to become RICO enterprises.”
As of Monday, the judges had not made a ruling on whether to deny or grant the appeal.
See original story below.
Even behind bars, R. Kelly wants the money he feels owed. As a result, he’s going after the federal government.
The disgraced singer is suing the United States government so he can return his commissary funds, per court documents.
Kelly is suing the United States government because, in March 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Heather Williams, an alleged victim of the singer, was entitled to access to all of the Chicago singer’s funds from his label, which was valued at $1.5 million.
This isn’t what Kelly wanted, so a year later, he’s trying to get them back.
The announcement for the hearing, which is scheduled for Monday, read, “The defendant is appealing his conviction and the government’s seizure of his substantial Bureau of Prisons commissary account to satisfy the financial penalties imposed in the case.”
If you’re interested in listening to the hearing, you can listen to the live stream here.
Although this particular case is related to Williams’ legal win a year ago, it isn’t the first time Williams won a judgment against Kelly. In 2020, she won a civil lawsuit against the singer after she claimed that he coerced her to come to his studio and had sex with her multiple times when she was only 16 years old.
Kelly has also been pretty busy filing lawsuits. In November 2023, the R&B singer filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), claiming that an agent illegally sold private prison records with gossip blogger Tasha K, including phone call recordings with his legal team and girlfriend.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s attorney, wrote in the lawsuit, “The defendant United States of America breached its duty of care to the plaintiff when it allowed countless BOP officers to access the plaintiff’s confidential information without any legal basis to do so.”
