R. Kelly Is Reportedly 'Desperate' To Hire Michael Jackson's Legendary Attorney

Things are apparently getting super stressful in R. Kelly‘s world.

The R&B singer is reportedly “desperate” to retain Tom Mesereau — the legendary attorney who successfully defended Michael Jackson in the King of Pop’s infamous child molestation trial way back in 2005. The only problem is, uhhh, well, where the hell is Kelly gonna come up with the money necessary to hire this guy??

Sources with knowledge of what’s going on here spoke to TMZ about the whole situation, and it turns out the embattled R&B crooner has hit on his “industry contacts” to reach out to Mesereau about potentially coming on board. As you’ll recall, Kelly is facing a slew of both federal and state charges on alleged sex crimes relating to minors, among other things — and more charges just keep coming as time goes on.

Apparently, those very same industry contacts have agreed to “anonymously help foot the bill,” so as to effectively bring MJ’s highly-esteemed lawyer over to Kelly’s side. The R&B singer’s fans (?!) have even offered to send in money to help pay for the high-priced legal addition. Wow…

R. Kelly arrested federal sex crime charges — Life continues to be difficult amid extremely serious, potentially damaging accusations against the R&B singer… / (c) WENN

Mesereau has a hell of a reputation among celebrity defense attorneys, for what it’s worth; not only did he get the King of Pop off the hook in that extremely high-profile 2005 trial, but he also got Robert Blake acquitted from charges he murdered his wife in that same year.

Now, there’s a big catch with all this: the money to pay Mesereau’s big-time rates allegedly won’t come to Kelly unless and until he fires his current attorney, Steven Greenberg. Maybe take it with a grain of salt, but Greenberg himself has called the entire situation “a complete load of crap.” Hmmm…

Still, the I Believe I Can Fly singer is being charged with various sex crimes in THREE jurisdictions: Illinois (state), Illinois (federal), and now Minnesota (state), with other potential charges possibly on the way in both Detroit and Atlanta. Knowing all that, one of his constitutional rights is to be allowed to fully and aggressively defend himself against those charges. If that means hiring an incredibly high-priced and well-thought-of attorney, well, hey… so be it.

What do y’all think about Kelly’s ongoing legal controversies, Perezcious readers?! Would a new lawyer on the team make the crooner more likely to be acquitted from any potential trials in the future, as were both MJ and Blake???? Or is it all too little, too late for a desperate man obsessed with saving himself at all costs?!