R. Kelly asks Trump to reduce his 31-year prison sentence

R&B singer R. Kelly has officially asked President Donald Trump to reduce his 31-year prison sentence. He is serving time for racketeering, sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse. The Guardian reported this on Thursday.

Court documents released this week by the Office of the Pardon Attorney show that Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, submitted a request for clemency to the US Department of Justice.

The records indicate that the application is pending. Kelly is asking for a reduction of his sentence and not a full pardon from the president.

At 59 years old, Kelly was found guilty in 2021 of racketeering. Prosecutors claimed he led a criminal group that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activities and produced pornography.

He got a 30-year prison sentence for this. In 2022, he was convicted in another case related to child sexual abuse material and child enticement. He received a 20-year sentence for these charges, most of which runs at the same time as his previous sentence, adding just one more year to his total.

Kelly is now serving his combined 31-year sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina. He will not be eligible for release until January 2046.

Kelly's lawyer, Beau Brindley, has been trying to get Trump to grant clemency for more than a year. Last year, Brindley filed an urgent motion asking for Kelly's release to home detention. He claimed that Kelly's life was in danger because prison officials were involved in a plan to have another inmate kill him.

However, the court dismissed this request. Kelly has always denied the allegations against him.