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White House Shrugs Off Disgraced Singer’s Pardon Request

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R. Kelly
Wikimedia Commons, By Allgamenab at English Wikipedia - Nicholas Ballasy took this photo of R. Kelly in 2006 during the "Mr. Show Biz Presents: The Light it Up Tour" in Atlantic City, New Jersey., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4859952

R. Kelly wants President Donald Trump to cut down his decades-long prison sentence, but the White House is making clear the convicted sex offender’s clemency request is not getting special treatment.

The convicted sex offender submitted a formal clemency request asking for a commutation of his 31-year-long sentence, not a full pardon, according to the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the filing this week.

The request puts the disgraced R&B singer back in the middle of a Trump clemency conversation after years of legal losses tied to his sex-crimes convictions.

Kelly was convicted in 2021 of racketeering and sex trafficking. A separate federal case in Chicago ended the next year with another conviction, this time for producing child pornography.

The White House confirmed that Kelly’s request exists, but the response made clear that the filing itself does not mean the administration is moving toward granting it.

“This appears to be a random submission through the public portal which anyone can submit an application through,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

The official also downplayed any suggestion that Kelly’s case had become a live priority for the White House clemency team.

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“The submission of a pardon request should not be interpreted to mean anything other than an individual has chosen to submit a request,” the official added.

“The team that reviews clemency requests at the White House is not tracking this request at this time. The White House has a thorough review process for all clemency requests, with the President being the ultimate decider.”

Kelly’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, had already tried to frame the singer’s prison situation as an emergency that required Trump’s attention.

Last year, Brindley pushed for Kelly to be transferred from prison to house arrest, arguing that alleged safety threats behind bars had made continued incarceration dangerous for his client.

The attorney’s allegation centered on a claimed plot involving three prison officials and a terminally ill inmate.

Brindley accused the officials of recruiting the inmate to kill Kelly by promising early release in return.

“The only thing that can protect Mr. Kelly behind the prison walls now is the fact that now the world is watching,” Brindley wrote in a statement.

“We will call on the courts and President Trump to help put an end to the corruption that now threatens Mr. Kelly’s life.”

Kelly’s push is not the only celebrity-linked pardon matter to create headaches around Trump’s clemency process.

Boosie Badazz has taken his own pardon fight to court, accusing political operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman of failing to deliver after he allegedly paid a massive fee to secure help from Trump.

TMZ reported that the rapper claimed he paid $600,000 for a presidential pardon that never came through.

The outlet, citing NOTUS, reported that Boosie Badazz reached a deal with Wohl and Burkman in the fall of 2025 after they allegedly presented themselves as having major access to the president and acted like they had POTUS “on speed dial.”

The lawsuit now revolves around money Boosie Badazz says should have been returned.

TMZ reported that the rapper is trying to recover $300,000 under a contract provision that allegedly required half the fee to be refunded if the pardon effort failed.

The filing claims the rapper’s lawyer received a New Year’s Day call saying Trump had signed the pardon but that the White House had not yet made the news public.

According to the court documents, no pardon was actually signed, and Wohl and Burkman refused to return the money.

The pair allegedly denied the refund agreement existed and argued that their law firm could not pay because it had been hit with millions of dollars in fines from other litigation, TMZ reported.

Burkman rejected the rapper’s complaint when speaking to the outlet.

“Boosie has no reason to be unhappy. In 30 years of lobbying, I doubt we have ever done more work and harder work,” Burkman told the outlet.

“The provision in the contract he is referencing was never agreed to at all. The other factor is that Boosie’s quest for a pardon was made much tougher by an arrest for an alleged crime of violence in Texas earlier this year.”

A White House official cited in the report denied that Wohl and Burkman had any role in the pardon process.

The official said the team had “never heard from” them and claimed their involvement would have hurt, not helped, the odds of Trump granting clemency.

Boosie Badazz had been serving time for possessing a firearm after a criminal conviction connected to a May 2023 arrest in San Diego.

Another pardon rumor put the White House on defense in October, when officials knocked down claims that Sean “Diddy” Combs was about to receive clemency from Trump.

Combs is serving a four-year sentence after being found guilty of two prostitution charges.

He had faced up to 20 years in prison after his high-profile New York trial, but jurors acquitted him of the more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.

Prosecutors had sought at least 11 years behind bars, while Combs’ defense team asked for his release.

In a September filing, prosecutors called Combs “unrepentant” and rejected his attempt to reframe the allegations against him.

“The defendant tries to recast decades of abuse as simply the function of mutually toxic relationships,” prosecutors wrote. “But there is nothing mutual about a relationship where one person holds all the power and the other ends up bloodied and bruised.”

TMZ broke the October pardon report and did not retreat after the White House denied it.

“There is zero truth to the TMZ report, which we would’ve gladly explained had they reached out before running their fake news,” a White House official confirmed to Newsweek. “The president, not anonymous sources, is the final decider on pardons and commutations.”

TMZ spokesperson Casey Carver defended the outlet’s reporting in a response to NBC News. “We stand by our story,” Carver asserted.

Trump has used his clemency power for famous names before, including five former NFL players pardoned in February after they had already served prison sentences.

Alice Marie Johnson, Trump’s pardon czar, announced clemency for former New York Jets Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Klecko, Dallas Cowboys offensive tackle Nate Newton, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, Buffalo Bills running back Travis Henry, and star Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders halfback Billy Cannon, who died in 2018.

“As football reminds us, excellence is built on grit, grace, and the courage to rise again. So is our nation,” Johnson stated.

“Grateful [to President Trump] for his continued commitment to second chances. Mercy changes lives.”

Johnson also thanked Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for “personally sharing the news with Nate Newton.”

The pardons cleared the former players’ criminal records after each had already completed time in prison.

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