R&B singer R. Kelly has officially appealed to United States President Donald Trump for executive clemency, requesting that his 31-year prison sentence be reduced.
According to court records released this week by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, submitted an application to the US Department of Justice seeking a commutation of his sentence. The request remains under review.
Unlike a presidential pardon, a commutation would reduce Kelly’s prison term without overturning his convictions.
The 59-year-old singer was found guilty in 2021 on racketeering charges after prosecutors accused him of operating a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for sexual exploitation and the production of child sexual abuse material. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
A year later, Kelly was convicted in a separate federal case on three counts involving child sexual abuse material and three counts of enticing minors.
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He received an additional 20-year sentence, with all but one year to run concurrently with his previous sentence, bringing his total prison term to 31 years.
Kelly is currently serving his sentence at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina and is not expected to be released until January 2046.
His attorney, Beau Brindley, has spent more than a year urging President Trump to grant clemency. In 2025, Brindley also sought Kelly’s transfer to home detention, alleging that the singer’s life was at risk due to an alleged murder plot involving prison officials and another inmate.
The court dismissed that emergency request.
Kelly has continued to deny the allegations that led to his convictions.