If singer R. Kelly really did construct an elaborate sex cult society in Chicago and Atlanta and trafficked young women from across the country, then he could not have pulled off this multipronged operation by himself. If that is true, the feds believe Kelly had lots of help running his alleged criminal endeavor.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already opened up a probe into the embattled “Step in the Name of Love” crooner to see if he violated the Mann Act by transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes, according to the Independent. Another federal agency is also looking into the many people who orbited Kelly’s world and allegedly enabled him to engage in decades of criminal sexual abuse against scores of young women and underage girls.
According to The Blast, the Department of Homeland Security considers anyone who knowingly helped R. Kelly commit alleged sex crimes as culpable as the person who actually did the act. Some of the people who worked with Kelly during these past three decades allegedly recruited and even brought women to Kelly.
Much of the public learned of Kelly’s brigade of “enablers” during the five-alarm docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” that aired in January on Lifetime.
Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is heading the multi-agency effort and is charged with handling sex traffickers and underage sex crimes.
The feds have already spoken with multiple subjects or persons of interest in metro Atlanta, which incidentally is considered the nation’s epicenter of sex trafficking.
One of the people interviewed was Kash Howard, one of Kelly’s former stylists. In a press conference afterward, Howard’s lawyer prevented her from discussing the contents of the interview. Another person who spoke to the feds is a new accuser who says that she was also abused and was a witness to Kelly’s abuse of other women.
Some of the evidence given to federal investigators includes plane tickets, text messages and photos. These are reportedly being used to build a federal case against Kelly, The Blast reports.
In addition to facing 10 felony charges of criminal sexual abuse in Chicago, Kelly may soon face federal charges as well. And the wide net that the feds are casting may scoop up some of Kelly’s handlers, helpers and enablers.
