R Kelly asks Donald Trump to commute North Carolina prison sentence
R Kelly has formally asked Donald Trump to commute his 30-year prison sentence.
The singer is serving three decades behind bars at FCI Butner Medium I in Butner, North Carolina, after being convicted of several crimes in 2021 and 2022.
Kelly was found guilty of racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, coercion, sex trafficking, and violating the Mann Act, and has been in custody since 2019.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the 59-year-old has officially reached out to the president regarding his legal case.
Rather than a full pardon, Kelly is reportedly hoping to secure a reduction on his 30-year prison sentence. The Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney made the appeal public this week.
Kelly’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, previously made a public plea to Trump, but this is the first time a request has formally been issued.
Speaking last year, Brindley said, “R Kelly’s life is now threatened, because of his willingness to fight and to expose the very kind of corruption that President Trump has been fighting and standing up to since the day he took that office. We will ask President Trump to help us.”
He continued, “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. We are seeking talks with the White House. We are seeking talks with everybody who is willing to help us.”
The comments were part of a claim from Kelly’s team that terminally ill inmate Mikeal Glenn Stine, a leader in the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, was asked by federal authorities to kill the singer in exchange for freedom.