R&B singer R. Kelly has officially asked President Donald Trump to end his 30-year prison sentence for sex crimes.
The disgraced 59-year-old music artist, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York in September 2021.
After years in prison, Kelly’s attorneys have submitted a request for a commutation of his sentence to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which was made public this week.
The request, which was first reported by the Chicago Tribune, remains pending.
The Chicago-born star shot to fame during the 1990s, and by the early 2000s, he was plagued by accusations of sexual misconduct.
The full extent of Kelly’s crimes came to light during a six-week trial in Brooklyn, where jurors found him guilty of nine counts, including sexual exploitation of children, forced labor and violations of the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport women across state lines for illegal sexual activity.
When Kelly was sentenced in June 2022, Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said, “R. Kelly used his fame, fortune and enablers to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification, while many turned a blind eye.”
“With today’s sentence he has finally and appropriately been held accountable for his decades of abuse, exploitation and degradation of teenagers and other vulnerable young people,” Peace added.
A year ago, Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, made a public plea to Trump to free the singer from prison.
“We are seeking a conversation with the president, because R. Kelly does not have the time, with his life in danger, to go through the normal channels,” Brindley said at a June 2025 press conference.
Brindley had claimed authorities were plotting to steal Kelly’s mail to turn witnesses against him and then have a white supremacist kill him in prison.
Kelly’s attorney has also gone down a different legal avenue to get his client out of prison. He’s seeking a new trial in Chicago, alleging that prosecutors tainted Kelly’s conviction by conspiring to steal the singer’s mail in prison, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Vague, conclusory allegations are insufficient to warrant a hearing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Walgamuth for the Northern District of Illinois wrote in a court filing last month, according to the outlet.
It’s unclear whether Trump will grant Kelly’s clemency request. The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
During the May 2025 trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was accused of sex crimes, Trump was asked whether he’d pardon the rap mogul if he was convicted.
“First of all, I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely…I haven’t seen him. I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Trump said.
“If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don’t like me, it wouldn’t have any impact on me,” he added.
Combs was subsequently found guilty by a Manhattan jury of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted of more serious charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking. He was sentenced to about four years in prison.
