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R Kelly to enter plea to reworked federal charges in Chicago

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R&B singer R. Kelly is due in federal court to enter a plea to an updated federal indictment that includes sex abuse allegations involving a new accuser.

The 53-year-old is expected to plead not guilty at Thursday's hearing in Chicago to a superseding indictment unsealed last month that includes multiple counts of child pornography.

The reworked charging document is largely the same as the original indictment but includes a reference to a new accuser.

The hearing also could be a chance for the judge to push back the trial date. Kelly faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York.

He's denied abusing anyone.

Photo caption: In this Sept. 17, 2019 file photo, R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago. State prosecutors said Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, that the first of the four Chicago sexual abuse cases against Kelly that they'll take to trial involves a hairdresser who alleges that Kelly tried to force himself on her during a 2003 appointment. Kelly, who remains jailed, faces a raft of charges in several jurisdictions, including four separate indictments on Illinois state charges involving four women who accuse the singer of sexually abusing them during a roughly 10-year period starting in the late 1990s. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, File)