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Claim: Social media users here and here claim R&B singer R Kelly has been pardoned by Donald Trump and released from prison.
Verdict: Misleading. R. Kelly is still in prison and has not been pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Full Text
A viral social media post claims that R&B singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R. Kelly, has been released after US President Donald Trump granted him a pardon.
One such post, shared by Instagram user @peepowl_, features a video showing Kelly being escorted out of jail by a man in a black coat.
As of March 22, 2025, the post had gained over 12,000 likes, 2,000 comments, and 22,000 shares.
A similar claim was made by Facebook user Ukpong-Abasi Asuquo with the same video on March 6, 2025.
While some users believed the claim, others dismissed it. For instance, a user, Kene Nwoji, commented, “Go and sin no more. I pray he still finds his place in the music industry. Welcome back.”
Another user, IdeEkpe Fabian Emmanuel, wrote, “Oh, the storm is over.” However, Nony Emma countered the claim, “Fake news noni…”
Verification
DUBAWA analysed the video using the InVID-WeVerify verification tool. InVID extracted Keyframes from the video and subjected them to a Reverse Image Search. This led to an original upload of the footage on YouTube in 2019 by AFP News.
The video is not recent. It shows R. Kelly appearing in a Chicago court for a status hearing related to aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges.
Findings reveal that R. Kelly, now 58 years old, has not been released from prison but is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for sex crimes, including the exploitation of minors.
He was convicted in New York in 2022 for racketeering and sex trafficking and separately in Chicago for child pornography and obstruction of justice. He also faces additional charges in Cook County, Illinois, and Hennepin County, Minnesota.
Furthermore, as of March 2025, no credible report confirms that Donald Trump pardoned R. Kelly.
Conclusion
The viral claim that R. Kelly has been released from prison after a pardon by Donald Trump is false and misleading. The video used as evidence is from 2019 and is unrelated to the singer’s incarceration. R. Kelly remains behind bars, serving his sentence for multiple sex crimes.
