Imprisoned R&B singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R. Kelly, has formally requested that United States President Donald Trump commute his 31-year prison sentence.
According to court records released this week by the Office of the Pardon Attorney and reported by The Guardian, Kelly submitted an application for executive clemency through the US Department of Justice. The request seeks a reduction of his sentence rather than a full presidential pardon.
The records show that the application is currently pending.
Kelly was convicted in 2021 on racketeering charges after prosecutors argued that he led a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activity and the production of child sexual abuse material. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in that case.
A year later, he was convicted in a separate federal case on three counts involving child sexual abuse material and three counts of child enticement.
The second conviction resulted in a 20-year sentence, with most of the term ordered to run concurrently with his earlier sentence, leaving him with a combined prison term of 31 years.
Kelly is currently serving his sentence at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina. His projected release date is January 2046.
His attorney, Beau Brindley, has been seeking executive clemency from President Trump for more than a year.
Brindley also previously filed an emergency motion requesting that Kelly be allowed to serve his sentence under home confinement, alleging that prison officials had attempted to arrange for another inmate to kill him.
The court rejected that application.
Kelly has consistently denied the allegations that led to his convictions.
