R. Kelly is asking President Donald Trump to shorten his 31-year prison term, formally placing a request for mercy before the administration while he remains in federal custody.
The singer, 59, filed for a sentence commutation through the Justice Department, according to records from the Office of the Pardon Attorney. His request is marked “pending.” A commutation would reduce his punishment without wiping away his convictions.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, is serving time in North Carolina and is not eligible for release until January 2046. He was sentenced to 30 years after being convicted in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking.
A separate 2022 case brought convictions on three counts involving child sexual abuse images and three counts of child enticement and resulted in a 20-year term that runs mostly concurrently with his earlier sentence, adding one year.
Attorney Beau Brindley has spent more than a year calling for Trump to step in. In 2025, Brindley unsuccessfully asked a court to move Kelly to home detention, alleging prison officials were connected to a plot against his client.
“We will call on the courts and President Trump to help put an end to the corruption that now threatens Mr Kelly’s life,” Brindley said at the time.
Another rapper’s pardon push recently ended in a money fight. Boosie Badazz is pursuing arbitration after paying JM Burkman & Associates $600,000 to seek clemency. He wants $300,000 returned after no pardon materialized. The firm denies agreeing to a partial refund.
Kelly has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
