Three Men Charged With Threatening n Intimidating Women Who Sexually Accused R Kelly

Federal prosecutors announced charges for the men on Wednesday. The trio includes one man who is suspected of setting fire to a vehicle in Florida.

Three men said to be friends of R Kelly have been charged with threatening and intimidating women who accused the R&B singer of abuse.

A long-time friend of the indicted singer offered to pay a victim 500,000 dollars to keep her from co-operating in Kelly’s prosecution, authorities said, while a manager and adviser of Kelly is accused of threatening to release sexually explicit photographs of a woman who sued the musician.

The Grammy-award winner has denied any abuse and pleaded not guilty to dozens of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

The charges range from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls. He is also accused of having unprotected sex with a girl in 2015 without disclosing he had herpes.

Kelly's defence lawyer Steve Greenberg said the singer denied any involvement in attempts to silence the witnesses.

He said on Twitter: "We just learned of the charging of several so called 'associates' of R. Kelly. Without question, Robert Kelly had nothing to do with any of these alleged acts by those charged.

"He hasn’t attempted to intimidate anyone, or encouraged anyone else to do so. No involvement whatsoever."

Prosecutors described a third man accused of intimidating witnesses as being related to a former Kelly publicist.

They said Michael Williams, 37, of Georgia, travelled to Florida in June and set fire to an SUV parked outside a residence where one of Kelly’s victims was staying.