"Quit playing, I didn’t do this stuff," the pop singer tearfully told Gayle King of CBS News on Tuesday."This is not me. I’m fighting for my f*****g life." He said.
Kelly was indicted on February 22 in a Chicago courtroom on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against four victims, three of whom were underage at the time the alleged crimes were committed.
If convicted, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 70 years – 7 years for each count.The singer has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Kelly told CBS News that there was no merit to the allegations he forced underage girls to have sex with him.
Prosecutors say Kelly’s alleged victims include a teenager he met when she sought an autograph during his 2008 trial on child pornography charges, another he met at her 16th-birthday party and his hairdresser, who was then 24.
The singer was acquitted of the 2008 pornography charges.
A fourth charge is based on a videotape that purportedly shows Kelly and a 14-year-old girl engaged in sexual acts, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors in the 2008 case also introduced a video as evidence against Kelly, but the victim did not testify.
The new charges emerged in a different environment, after the #MeToo movement had made accusers more willing to come forward and law enforcement more likely to believe them.
In his interview with CBS News, Kelly cited his acquittal to back up his claim that he is innocent.
"I beat my case,we can’t double-jeopardy me like thatyou can’t. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to nobody. When you beat your case, you beat your case." Kelly said.
In the American legal system, the government is not allowed to try a defendant on the same or similar charges after he or she was already acquitted, a procedural defense known as ‘double jeopardy.’
R. Kelly says that the latest charges are an attempt by prosecutors to re litigate the cases he already beat.
“I had two cases back then that I said in the beginning of the interview that I would not talk about because of my ongoing case now,’
But…people are going back to my past and they’re trying to add all of this stuff now to that, to make all of this stuff that’s going on now feel real to people.”he said on Tuesday.