Former R&B star R. Kelly, serving 30 years behind bars after his
conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges
, is seeking a pardon from President Trump.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer has been in solitary confinement since filing an emergency motion seeking to be moved from federal prison to house arrest, alleging that
three Bureau of Prisons officials were plotting to kill him
, his attorney, Beau Brindley, told People. He’s cut off from family and beset by crawling spiders at night, Brindley said.
“We are in open discussions with people close to President Trump,” Brindley told People. “And those discussions have expanded and intensified since we filed our motion. We believe that President Trump is the only person with the courage to help us.”
Prosecutors immediately filed to strike Kelly’s motion, reminding the court that he’s a “serial sexual predator” and contending the motion shows only that his “
abuse and harassment continues
,” Billboard reported.
Kelly’s legal team submitted a sworn statement from terminally ill fellow inmate Mikeal Glenn Stine declaring he’d been
offered freedom in exchange for murdering Kelly
. Officials told Stine that Kelly was about to prove they’d intercepted his personal correspondence, thus violating his attorney-client privilege. They promised to botch evidence to ensure he wouldn’t get convicted of the murder, said Stine, a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Stine acquiesced and was moved to the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., where Kelly is, and assigned to the same cell. Once there, he thought better of the murder plot and told Kelly about the plan instead.
Though Kelly does not know Trump personally, he lived for a long time at Chicago’s Trump Tower, according to People. That, coupled with recent remarks Trump has made about potentially
pardoning hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs
, gives Kelly hope, his lawyer said. Trump has already
doled out numerous pardons
to others convicted of serious crimes. They plan to appeal directly to President Trump rather than go through the formal application process, Brindley said.
“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,” Brindley said, according to WBBM. “We are seeking talks with the White House. We are seeking talks with everybody who is willing to help us.”
Kelly was convicted in September 2021 for operating a decades-long sexual abuse and trafficking ring, luring young fans across state lines and keeping them virtual prisoners in his mansion.
A Brooklyn Federal Court judge
sentenced Kelly to 30 years in federal prison
in June 2022, and he
lost his appeal in February 2025
.
In September 2022, a Chicago jury also found Kelly
guilty on three child pornography charges
based on videotapes he’d taken — and preserved — of himself sexually abusing teenagers, some as young as 13.
He was sentenced to 20 years
for that, to be served concurrently.
In his heyday, Kelly sold more than 75 million albums and won three Grammys. His popularity unraveled when Lifetime ran a three-season, 15-part documentary series starting in 2019, titled “
Surviving R. Kelly
,” featuring lurid details from witnesses and victims.
