Thread by @djbyrnes1

Opening statements expected today in #RKelly's federal trial in Chicago. Jury selection finished yesterday afternoon, with the jury consisting of 2 white men, 2 Black men, 4 Black women and 4 white women. @CourthouseNews

First news of the day from presiding judge Harry Leinenweber in #RKelly's federal trial in Chicago: one juror has called in sick and two are stuck on the train. @CourthouseNews

#Rkelly's trial proceedings are going to be delayed for about 30 minutes, Judge Leinenweber says, while the court waits for the jury to assemble. @CourthouseNews

The late jury members in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago have finally arrived. They were delayed by commute issues: Their @metraBNSF commuter train was stuck on the tracks due to a truck striking the bridge the tracks were on. Opening statements beginning now. @CourthouseNews

Federal prosecutors' opening statement: "The defendant [R. Kelly] had sex with multiple children... and he covered it up" @CourthouseNews

Prosecutors in the #Rkelly trial in Chicago: "Kelly had another side. A hidden side. A dark side. A side that he, and [co-defendants] McDavid and Brown, did not allow the world to see... Kelly had sex, repeatedly, with children." @CourthouseNews

Prosecutors say the trial is about #RKelly's alleged sex acts with five specific minor girls, and his efforts to cover up the videos he made of those sex acts. @CourthouseNews

The five alleged #Rkelly victims will be described using pseudonyms during the trial, prosecutors said. The first, called "Jane," allegedly met Kelly when she was 12 or 13 years old, when Kelly was 31. Jane thought Kelly would help her musical career, prosecutors said.

Prosecutor Jason Julien says Kelly, in his 30s, took Jane's virginity while she was only a teenager. "Kelly was using a camcorder to record himself having sex with children... Kelly recorded himself having sex with Jane in four different scenes," Julien said. @CourthouseNews

Julien now warning the jury that for evidence, they will have to watch the four tapes that feature #Rkelly having sex with Jane. The videos are graphic, he said. He also said Jane is going to testify that she had sex with Kelly "hundreds of times." @CourthouseNews

#RKelly pressured Jane to lie about her sexual relationship with him, prosecutors in Chicago said. Prosecutors also said Kelly convinced Jane to bring in one of her 16-year-old friends, called "Brittany," for a threesome. @CourthouseNews

After one of #Rkelly's sex videos with Jane leaked to the public, federal prosecutor Jason Julien said, she and her family feared for their lives. He alleged they fled the country, and that Jane contemplated suicide. @CourthouseNews

Prosecutor Julien: "When Jane and her family got back in America, [co-defendant Milton] Brown took Jane to get her tattoo of #RKelly covered up... Brown didn't take Jane to a tattoo parlor to get that tattoo covered up, he took her to somebody's house." @CourthouseNews

Julien now bringing up #Rkelly's prior indictment in Cook County in 2002, a case in which he was eventually acquitted. @CourthouseNews

Prosecutors say another alleged #RKelly victim, named "Lisa," found a sex tape of her, Jane and Kelly having a threesome. To keep her close and discourage her from leaking the video, Kelly allegedly put her up in hotels and music studios in Chicago. @CourthouseNews

US Attorney Jason Julien: "Lisa had rules... she had to call Kelly 'daddy'... she wasn't allowed to engaged with other men." If she broke these rules, Julien said, #RKelly would beat her. @CourthouseNews

Federal Prosecutors say #RKelly and his co-defendants Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown eventually got three of his four sex tapes back, and conspired to cover up public knowledge of the tapes during Kelly's 2008 state trial in Cook County. @CourthouseNews

"The effort to get the sext tapes back and silence the witnesses came after [#RKelly] had sex with minors," federal prosecutor Jason Julien said, emphasizing the 13 different charges Kelly faces. These charges include child porn counts, conspiracy, & sexual abuse. @CourthouseNews

US Attorney Jason Julien in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago, speaking to the jury: "We have a burden to prove this indictment beyond a reasonable doubt... we're going to prove to you, all 13 counts, beyond a reasonable doubt." @CourthouseNews

Julien again warning the jury that they will have to watch #Rkelly's alleged sex tapes during the trial: "It's important for you to watch those videos... we're not going to play child pornography for an hour... they will be snippets." @CourthouseNews

With that, the federal prosecutors wrap up their opening statements in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago. Up next is Jennifer Bonjean, lead attorney on Kelly's defense team. @CourthouseNews

Bonjean, #Rkelly's lead defense attorney, is urging the jury to remain neutral and impartial in his trial. She admits that, due to her client's fame, most of the jury have prior knowledge of the allegations surrounding Kelly. @CourthouseNews

Bonjean: "Some measure of bravery will be required of you because this is a challenging case... very few of you came in here as a blank slate... most of you came in here with some information, some knowledge about my client." @CourthouseNews

Bonjean re-iterates to the jury that Kelly is entitled to a fair trial and urges jury to see with a lens "unclouded by what you may have heard on the street or seen in a headline or watched in a documentary." @CourthouseNews

Bonjean playing up Kelly's rise to fame, as well as his moral failings: "It is true that Mr. Kelly is imperfect, that on his journey from poverty to stardom, he stumbled along the way. We won't deny that." @CourthouseNews

#Rkelly's defense lead Jennifer Bonjean again telling the jury to remain impartial: "When the government paints Mr. Kelly as a monster, we ask you... to keep those emotions in check. Because you said you could." @CourthouseNews

Defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean attacks the federal prosecutors' case in #RKelly's Chicago trial as a witch hunt "based on a documentary," referring to the 2019 series "Surviving R. Kelly." She says the case is driven by a "mob justice environment" and "hashtag movements."

Bonjean also says the sex tapes allegedly showing #RKelly having sex with minor girls have "no evidentiary value," given that one of the girls allegedly in the video, called Jane, denied it was her in the video, under oath, multiple times over 20 years. @CourthouseNews

#Rkelly's defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean lambasts federal prosecutors' allegation that Jane denied it was her in the sex tapes due to fear of what Kelly would do to her. She says that allegation won't hold up once the jury has a chance to examine the evidence. @CourthouseNews

Bonjean instead attacks Jane's credibility, and that of her family. She says Jane could be considered guilty of perjury, and that she only agreed to speak in court due to an immunity deal. @CourthouseNews

Bonjean: "I'm not here to defend [#Rkelly's] moral character or his [sexual] proclivities... that's for social media... In here, the only question is whether he committed the charged offenses." @CourthouseNews

Bonjean attacking the credibility of government witnesses in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago. @CourthouseNews

Bonjean to the jury: "In order to find any of the defendants guilty of some type of obstruction, you'll have to believe three individuals who, so long as they come up here and say what the government thinks is true, their own criminal activities are cleared." @CourthouseNews

#Rkelly's lead defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean is accusing two of Kelly's alleged victims -"Lisa" and "Brittany" - of extorting him, demanding upwards of $35,000 to not release his sex tapes to the public. @CourthouseNews

Jennifer Bonjean, #Rkelly's lead defense attorney in his Chicago federal trial "The government's case really does rely on the testimony of liars, extortionists... people who if you believe the government's case, deal in sex trafficking." @CourthouseNews

With that, Bonjean concludes her remarks. Court is recessed for 15 minutes before attorneys for #RKelly's co-defendants give their own opening statements. @CourthouseNews

Opening statements resuming in #Rkelly's federal trial in Chicago. Attorney Vadim Glozman is speaking to the jury, representing Kelly's co-defendant and former business manager Derrel McDavid. @CourthouseNews

"You have heard that Derrel McDavid is charged with conspiracy... to obstruct justice," Glozman said. But he instead counters McDavid is only guilty of doing his job "with excellence" as Kelly's business manager. McDavid was "just doing his job," Glozman says. @CourthouseNews

Glozman now turning the case back on #RKelly. "The central issue to all the considerations here... is what did Robert Kelly say to Derrel McDavid back in 2002. What did he say to the attorneys." He says McDavid was duped by Kelly; that McDavid only acted on what Kelly said to do.

Defense attorney Vadim Glozman, speaking for #RKelly's co-defendant and former business manager Derrel McDavid, says McDavid had no reason to doubt Kelly's assertion that his sex tapes were bogus: "Anyone in Derrel's position would have believed that tape was illegitimate."

A woman named "Sparkle" tried to blackmail #RKelly over a record deal that fell through, Glozman says. Glozman blames Sparkle for spreading the allegation that Kelly had sex with minors - an allegation, Glozman points out, that Kelly's alleged victim "Jane" repeatedly denied.

Glozman also calls Chuck Freeman, a former associate of #RKelly who allegedly gave one of Kelly's leaked sex tapes to McDavid, a conman. Freeman "told lie after lie and has been caught doing so," Glozman says. He denies McDavid ever received any tape from Freeman. @CourthouseNews

"Throughout the course of this trial, you will see some awful things. Things that will make you want to look away. But ask yourself, what of these things did Derrel see before the 2008 [#Rkelly] trial? The answer is, none of it." Glozman says. @CourthouseNews

"Doing your job is not a crime... Derrel McDavid did his job," said attorney Vadim Glozman, concluding his opening statements representing #RKelly's co-defendant Derrel McDavid. Court on break for lunch til 2 pm. Opening statements for Milton Brown still to come. @CourthouseNews

#RKelly federal trial in Chicago is back in session. Defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean has just moved for a mistrial, contending, among other things, that Kelly's co-defendants intend to engage in "finger pointing" that Kelly cannot defend against. @CourthouseNews

Without discussion, presiding Judge Harry Leinenweber denies #RKelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean's motion to dismiss due to mistrial. @CourthouseNews

Defense Attorney Kathleen Leon, representing #RKelly's co-defendant Milton Brown, is now giving her opening statements in Chicago. @CourthouseNews

"They want you to believe that Milton Brown was part of this alleged conspiracy. But the evidence, or lack thereof, will show that he was just an assistant... he had no knowledge of any conspiracy [to cover up #RKelly's alleged sex tapes]," Leon says. @CourthouseNews

Leon is painting Brown as a simple small-town man without a high school education, who only did the odd jobs #RKelly assigned him to do; a "runner" and "errand boy." @CourthouseNews

Leon also says #RKelly "implemented a system of control and isolation" throughout Brown's employment to make sure Brown and Kelly's other employees were kept far away from his private life. Violating that privacy would endanger Brown's job, Leon alleges. @CourthouseNews

"Brown followed the rules. He kept his head down... this is the lens through which the evidence should be viewed," Leon says.

"Deprived of the benefit of hindsight... it was easy to believe the rumors of a fake sex tape were true. This was the extent of [Milton] Brown's knowledge," attorney Kathleen Leon says, representing Brown as a co-defendant in the #RKellyTrial in Chicago. @CourthouseNews

"There is no direct evidence" that Brown knew what was on any of #RKelly's alleged sex tapes, Leon said. Likewise, she claims there is no evidence he knew of any conspiracy to cover up those sex tapes. @CourthouseNews

"We are asking you to look through the same view available to the world and to Milton Brown back [in the early 2000s]," Brown's defense attorney says. She claims Brown only ever carried out the duties Kelly gave him. @CourthouseNews

With that, attorney Kathleen Leon concludes her opening statements in defense of Milton Brown, a co-defendant in the federal #RKellyTrial in Chicago. @CourthouseNews

I'm also ending my coverage of the Chicago #RKellyTrial for the day. The trial is expected to last 4 more weeks; I'll be providing intermittent coverage for important testimony & the eventual verdict. A full story for today's opening statements is also available @CourthouseNews

@CourthouseNews Here's that full story I mentioned on @CourthouseNews:

https://twitter.com/CourthouseNews/status/1559990241867415552