Avenatti: R. Kelly paid $2M to silence girl he assaulted

CHICAGO — Celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti said Monday that R&B singer R. Kelly paid $2 million to keep the alleged victim in a child pornography case off the witness stand during a 2008 trial that ended with his acquittal of all charges.

“R. Kelly bought his acquittal,” Avenatti said at a news conference in which he provided details of what he said has been a years-long effort by Kelly to prevent his sexual abuse of several underage girls from becoming public. He said Kelly paid at least one associate $100,000 to hunt down videos of him having sex with a minor that had gone missing.

Avenatti said he represents three alleged victims, three parents of victims and three associates of Kelly that he called ‘whistleblowers.”

Avenatti faces his own mounting legal problems. The one-time lawyer for Stormy Daniels — the woman who says President Donald Trump tried to pay her off after she had a sexual encounter with him before he became president — has been charged both in California and New York with stealing money from clients and attempting to extort money from sportswear maker Nike.

Avenatti’s comments come just days after federal prosecutors announced they’d indicted Kelly in New York and Chicago on charges that he and his entourage recruited girls and young women to engage in illegal sexual activity and covered it up by paying and threatening witnesses and victims. The 52-year-old Kelly was arrested and remains in federal custody. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a bond hearing.