R Kelly officially asks President Trump to end his 30-year prison sentence for sex crimes

Disgraced 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.

Attorneys for the singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, submitted the request for a commutation of sentence to the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice this year. It is currently listed on the office’s website as “pending.”

In 2025, Kelly’s attorney asked the president to set him free from prison, accusing federal authorities of plotting to steal his mail to pressure witnesses to testify against him and later recruiting a white supremacist to kill him in prison.

The singer was initially convicted of nine counts of a superseding indictment in Sept. 2021. He was charged with violating the Mann Act and racketeering that involved the sexual exploitation of children.

The following June, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In Feb. 2023, Kelly was separately sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes, with the judge ruling that all but one year would be served concurrently with his previous 30-year sentence.