On Aug. 26, disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly was attacked in his Metropolitan Correctional Center prison cell by a fellow inmate who has now been identified as 39-year-old Jeremiah Shane Farmer, a convicted gang member of the Latin Kings, Chicago Tribune reports.

Farmer, who is doing a mandatory life sentence for a 1999 double murder, was able to enter Kelly’s cell and struck him several times in the head while he was sleeping on the lower bunk. A jail security officer then pepper-sprayed Farmer to stop the attack.

In a six-page document filed on Tuesday (Sept. 1) with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Farmer confessed to attacking Kelly, 53, around 9:45 a.m. on Aug. 26. He then goes on to claim that “the government made” him but that he also did it to “shed light on” alleged government corruption.

Farmer, who reportedly has a history of mental health issues, is representing himself.

Kelly’s attorneys filed a request on Friday (Sept. 4) with U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber for an evidentiary hearing so that they can question Farmer under oath and explore “the role that any MCC personnel played” in the attack. He is also asking for Kelly’s release.

“It appears that MCC personnel simply followed Mr. Farmer, allowed him to carry out the attack, and then only intervened after Mr. Kelly had already sustained serious injuries,” Kelly’s attorney Michael Leonard said in the court filings.

Farmer’s filings further report that a mental health professional told him “You don’t want to assault Kelly, if you did, you would have done it” and “Go do it then.” At that point, Farmer stormed out of the professional’s office and entered an area of the prison he was not permitted to be in. That’s when he gained access to Kelly’s cell and began attacking him.

Farmer, who wound up in solitary confinement following the attack, and Kelly both remain detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Kelly is currently facing two federal indictments in two states on sexual abuse charges and has been held without bond since his arrest last year.

Kelly’s repeated requests to be released on bond have been rejected.

Due to COVID-19, a trial date for his case has yet to be set.