News summary produced by Claude AI
Robert Sylvester Kelly, the 59-year-old R&B singer, filed a formal appeal with the Department of Justice requesting that President Donald Trump commute his 31-year prison sentence. Kelly was convicted in 2021 of leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activity and pornography, resulting in a 30-year sentence. In 2022, he received an additional 20-year sentence after being found guilty on three counts of child abuse images and three counts of child enticement, with sentences running nearly concurrently except for one additional year.
Kelly is currently incarcerated at a federal prison in North Carolina and is not eligible for release until January 2046. The commutation request was disclosed in court records released this week by the pardon attorney’s office, which handles executive clemency filings for the White House. According to the filing, the request remains pending and does not constitute a request for a full pardon.
Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, has been publicly advocating for Trump’s intervention for more than a year. In 2025, Brindley filed an emergency motion seeking Kelly’s immediate release to home detention, claiming the singer’s life was in danger due to an alleged plot by prison officials to arrange Kelly’s assassination by a terminally ill inmate in exchange for an early release. That motion was denied by the courts. Kelly has consistently denied all allegations against him.