R&B singer R. Kelly has formally asked United States President Donald Trump to commute his 31-year prison sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse-related convictions.
According to court records released this week by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, submitted a clemency application to the US Department of Justice. The request is currently under review and seeks a reduction of his sentence rather than a full presidential pardon.
Kelly, 59, was convicted in 2021 on racketeering charges after prosecutors accused him of operating a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activities and the production of child sexual abuse material. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In 2022, he was convicted in a separate federal case on three counts involving child sexual abuse material and three counts of enticing minors. He received a 20-year sentence, with most of it running concurrently with his earlier sentence, extending his total prison term by one additional year.
The singer is currently serving his combined 31-year sentence at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina and is scheduled for release in January 2046.
His attorney, Beau Brindley, has been lobbying President Trump for more than a year to grant executive clemency.
Last year, Brindley filed an emergency motion seeking Kelly’s transfer to home detention, claiming the singer’s life was at risk after alleging that prison officials were involved in a plot to have him killed by another inmate. The court dismissed the request.
Kelly has consistently denied all allegations against him.
