Photo Credit: United States Bureau of Prisons
R. Kelly’s legal team has filed an emergency motion for his immediate release from federal prison, citing an alleged government-backed plot to have the singer murdered behind bars. The motion alleges that officials at the federal correctional facility in Butner, North Carolina have solicited an inmate to assassinate him.
Court documents reviewed by Variety confirm that Kelly’s attorneys claim to possess explicit evidence of the murder plot. They allege that terminally ill inmate Mikeal Glenn Stine was approached by authorities and offered freedom in his final days in exchange for killing Kelly.
Stine, who is affiliated with the white supremacist neo-Nazi prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood, allegedly arrived in Kelly’s unit in March 2025 to carry out the hit. Instead, he had a change of heart and warned the R&B singer of the plot against him.
In a sworn statement, Stine alleges that officials assured him he would not be prosecuted for the murder, as the evidence would be mishandled. He also alleged that Kelly and his attorneys were targeted in retaliation for plans to expose intercepted attorney-client communications—a breach of legal privilege.
Kelly’s lawyers have argued that the threat to the singer’s life is ongoing on urgent. They report that after Stine’s failure to carry out the hit, several other members of the Aryan Brotherhood have been approached to carry out the hit—with Stine now on the targeted list due to speaking out.
“The threat to Mr. Kelly’s life persists each day that no measures are taken,” the filing states. “More members of the A.B. are gathering at his facility. Several individuals have already been approached regarding the execution of his murder. It is only a matter of time before one of them acts.”
R. Kelly’s legal team is seeking a temporary transfer to home detention, insisting that Kelly’s safety cannot be guaranteed in the current environment. Defense attorney Beau Brindley has also called on President Trump to intervene. “We believe [Trump] is the only one with both the power and the courage to do it,” Brindley said in speaking with the Chicago Sun-Times.
R. Kelly was convicted in September 2021 on multiple counts of sexual exploitation of minors. In June 2022, he was sentenced to prison for 30 years for sex trafficking and racketeering, with 20 years added in February 2023 for child sex offenses.
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