R. Kelly Hit With Bribery Charge Over Fake ID to Marry Aaliyah

R. Kelly and Aaliyah shown together on "Surviving R. Kelly." (Credit: Lifetime)

The charges against R. Kelly continue to pile up.

According to an indictment filed in New York federal court on Thursday, Dec. 5, the jailed R&B singer has been charged with bribery for allegedly paying off an Illinois official in the 1990s to obtain a fake ID to marry Aaliyah when she was underage.

The indictment accuses Kelly of paying a bribe in exchange for a “fraudulent identification document” for someone identified as “Jane Doe” on Aug. 30, 1994, The Associated Press reported.

The next day, Kelly, 27, and Aaliyah, 15, married in a secret ceremony at a Chicago hotel, prosecutors say. The marriage was annulled a few months later because of Aaliyah’s age.

The “Ignition” singer’s attorney, Douglas Anton, called the new charge “ridiculous and absurd.”

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Kelly’s former tour manager and personal assistant, Demetrius Smith, said in the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly that he was in the room when his boss married Aaliyah. Smith said he helped obtain the paperwork that allowed her to claim she was 18 years old. “I had papers forged for them,” he stated.

“Robert said ‘I do,’” Smith added. “Him and Aaliyah.” A marriage license shown on-screen listed Aaliyah’s age as 18.

Aaliyah, real name Aaliyah Haughton, was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.

Kelly, 52, is currently being held in a Chicago jail as he awaits trial on sexual abuse, child pornography, and obstruction of justice charges. The R&B singer is battling cases in Illinois, New York, and Minnesota.