Thread by @djbyrnes1

R. Kelly's federal trial in Chicago is set to start today at 10 am CST. While Kelly was already convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Brooklyn federal court in June, he still faces child porn charges in Chicago. Full story to come @CourthouseNews

Trial has begun with jury selection arguments. R. Kelly's attorneys want to remove any jurors who saw the 2019 docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly." Lead R. Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean said "it is a fiction... that anyone [who saw the series] could be impartial." @CourthouseNews

Presiding Judge Harry Leinenweber said he will take the argument into consideration when questioning jurors, but largely disagrees that merely seeing the series is enough to bar a juror. @CourthouseNews

"It's one thing if they avidly watched each episode, but if they've only seen one or two episodes," it's probably insufficient to exclude them, Leinenweber said of R. Kelly's potential jurors. @CourthouseNews

Proceedings currently at a lull as juror selection gets underway. No indication yet how long jury selection will take before moving on to the attorneys' opening arguments.

Judge Leinenweber now explaining the case to the potential jurors. He estimates the case will last approximately four weeks, with each day running from 10 am to 5 pm. @CourthouseNews

Jury selection underway in #RKelly's Chicago federal trial. As agreed with Kelly's attorneys, presiding judge Harry Leinenweber is asking every potential juror if they have seen the 2019 docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly." @CourthouseNews

Leinenweber agreed to include questions about the docuseries in the jury selection process, but said that merely seeing a few episodes in insufficient to exclude a potential juror.

I'm not allowed to take photos in the courtroom, but as an aside #RKelly definitely has supporters in the building, despite his sex trafficking conviction in New York in June. One older woman is wearing a #FreeRKelly shirt with a rhinestone portrait of the singer's face on it.

A juror being questioned now in #Rkelly's Chicago federal case says he has a post-grad degree in music. Surprisingly, to me at least, this music scholar also says all he knows about R. Kelly is that he's a musician.

Jury selection still ongoing in #Rkelly's federal child porn case in Chicago. With 100+ potential jurors to get through, presiding judge Harry Leinenweber said he expects jury selection to last at least two days. We may not get to opening arguments til Wednesday. @CourthouseNews

After questioning 31 potential jurors with dozens more to go, the court has taken a break for lunch in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago. Jury selection will likely take up the rest of the day. @CourthouseNews

Given that, I'm also going to end my live-tweeting of the trial for the day. I'll pick up again tomorrow, and will be providing coverage throughout the four weeks that #Rkelly's trial is expected to last. @CourthouseNews