NEED TO KNOW
- R. Kelly is seeking a presidential pardon from Donald Trump his lawyer Beau B. Brindley tells PEOPLE, after filing an emergency motion alleging officials plotted to kill Kelly
- “We are in open discussions with people close to President Trump. And those discussions have expanded and intensified since we filed our motion,” Brindley says
- This comes after Kelly alleged officials were plotting to murder him in prison in an emergency motion that resulted in the singer being placed in solitary confinement this week, says his lawyer
R. Kelly is seeking clemency from President Donald Trump in his bid to be transferred from federal prison to home confinement.
The disgraced singer, who is currently serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted on federal charges including racketeering and sex trafficking, is hoping to be granted a pardon or have his sentence commuted after alleging in an emergency motion filed this week that three officials with the Bureau of Prisons plotted his murder.
“We are in open discussions with people close to President Trump. And those discussions have expanded and intensified since we filed our motion,” Kelly’s attorney Beau B. Brindley tells PEOPLE. “We believe that President Trump is the only person with the courage to help us.”
Brindley also claims that Kelly — whose real first name is Robert — is being punished because he filed that emergency motion.
“Immediately after our motion became public, Robert was thrown into solitary confinement. He cannot make phone calls to his family. He has no access to commissary. He has spiders crawling over him while he tries to sleep,” Brindley claims.
He went on to say that Kelly is also afraid to eat any food made at the prison for fear it may be poisoned.
Because he fears this treatment will only grow worse over time, Brindley feels the only way to help his client is to have Pres. Trump step in.
Kelly does not have a relationship with Pres. Trump, but he was a longtime resident of the Trump Tower in Chicago.
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The emergency filing seeking Kelly’s release included a declaration from an inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine, who alleged that he was asked to kill Kelly by three high-ranking individuals from the Bureau of Prisons.
Stine claims to be a longtime member of the Aryan Brotherhood and alleges he even held the title of commissioner at one point, which gave him the “power to order beatings, stabbings and executions that were carried out by other members of the A.B.,’ according to his declaration
He alleged that the prison officials then arranged his transfer across the country to the Federal Correctional Institute Butner in North Carolina — the same facility where Kelly is serving his sentence — and eventually placed him in the same unit as the singer.
BOP records do confirm a transfer from Arizona to North Carolina for Stine.
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In exchange for carrying out this murder or arranging it, Stine alleged in his declaration that officials told him he would be given a chance to escape from custody and live his final months as a “free man,” an offer that he found appealing because he claims to have been diagnosed with terminal cancer at the time.
Stine then allegedly told Kelly about the plot, saying he had a change of heart about carrying out a murder.
The Bureau of Prisons and the White House declined to comment.
Trump did say during an Oval Office press briefing last month that he would consider pardoning Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is facing similar criminal charges in the same federal court as Kelly.
“I would certainly look at the facts,” the president told reporters. “If I think someone was mistreated it wouldn’t matter whether they like me or don’t.”
Brindley tells PEOPLE that his client has been attacked in the past, and that his fears of a future incident are only heightened by his belief that officials inside the prison might not adequately — or outright refuse to — protect the singer.
“He is not safe in federal custody,” Brindley says. “And to keep him in prison while he is under threat like this is cruel and unusual punishment.”
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