It has not been a great week for R. Kelly, who is now being accused by the feds of bribing an Illinois official so that he could marry the late singer Aaliyah when she was just 15 years old.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn alleged that Kelly bribed a government employee on Aug. 30, 1994, in order to obtain a fake ID for Aaliyah, per documents obtained by the New York Times.
Kelly, who was 27 at the time, then married Aaliyah in a secret ceremony with falsified paperwork that gave her age as 18. After Aaliyah’s family caught wind about the ceremony, the marriage was quickly annulled.
Kelly’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, told The Tribune that he is still reviewing the new indictment but that at first glance, it “does not appear to materially alter the landscape.”
“We continue to look forward to the day he is free,” he told the newspaper by text.