Alleged Private Information Leak: R. Kelly Sues Federal Prison Bureau

Jailed international music superstar, Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known as R Kelly, has sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons, over alleged leaked private information about him to social media personality Tasha K. 

The disgraced superstar alleged that the federal agency illegally shared "sensitive" jailhouse information with Tasha K, a gossip blogger, who was also sued by Cardi B in 2022 for defamation. 

In the complaint his lawyers filed in Chicago federal court on Monday, Kelly claimed that an unnamed agent of the Bureau of Prisons, BOP, not only illegally accessed his digital prison records, including recordings of private phone calls with his girlfriend and lawyers, the said agent also sold the information to Tasha K, who subsequently broadcast same via her online platform with over 1 million followers. 

“The defendant...breached its duty of care to the plaintiff when it allowed countless BOP officers to access plaintiff’s confidential information without any legal basis to do so,” one of his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said. 

In the suit which has Tasha K as a defendant, Kelly averred that the influencer “rallied her massive following to harass him with the use of the stolen information and created chaos in his personal life.

The leaks, he averred, left him “isolated and fearful to communicate with his attorneys or other third parties,” aware it could be “released to the general public for mass exploitation.”

Kelly further claimed that Tasha published private information for the first time in November 2019, beginning with a video she titled “R. Kelly Can’t Control his Girlfriends while Behind Bars”.

The material, he noted, contained information Tasha said came from a “phone tap somewhere.” 

Kelly added that later posts revealed more personal information, one of which is the highly sensitive communications with his legal team.

“The communications…related to personal and family problems, romantic interests, health problems, literacy issues, and issues related to the defense of his pending criminal cases,” Kelly noted in the filed suit.

The lawsuit revealed that an internal BOP investigation indicated that the unnamed officer pulled Kelly's records from the agency’s digital database (TruView system) information on prisoners.

The officer, the suit alleged, scanned the materiaks and forward same, through emailed, to third parties, including defendant Tasha K. The probe, he noted, ended without any action taken against the erring officer. 

“No charges were brought against defendant BOP Officer A, and the government has refused to reveal any details about the investigation including the identity of Officer A. 

“In short, there has been a cover-up of the rampant BOP misconduct that is ongoing," Kelly's lawyer wrote in the filed complaint. 

Noting that the illegal leaks continued even after the BOP got wind of initial disclosures to Tasha K, Kelly cited a report last summer by the Washington Post about his $25,000 in commissary funds, which led to federal prosecutors seizing the money to settle his victims.

The leaks, the disgraced singer alleged, is indicative of negligence, an invasion of his privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil theft and civil conspiracy.

In addition, he summed that the officer involved in stealing the records violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law that defines computer hacking illegal