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R. Kelly is trying to score a win in his federal sex crimes case by citing public health laws in order to get the herpes-related charges tossed.

The singer's filed new legal docs in the Eastern District of NY, obtained by TMZ, asking the court to throw out charges for knowingly exposing sexual partners to herpes because ... he says the legislature didn't include herpes in the law because it's "Not An Acute, Bacterial Venereal Disease."

You might recall, federal prosecutors accused Kelly of exposing 2 people to an STD in March 2020, and the charges were tacked on to his already long list of federal charges for allegedly sexually exploiting underage girls and young women.