President Donald Trump is set to pardon former reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, the Atlanta multimillionaires currently serving prison time on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.
On Tuesday, Trump communications manager Margo Martin posted a video of the president calling the couple’s children from the White House to share the news.
“Your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” Trump told them.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced to 12 and seven years, respectively, after an Atlanta jury found them guilty of federal bank fraud and tax evasion charges. The jury found they had defrauded Atlanta-area banks of $36 million and hidden millions of dollars in income from their reality television show, “Chrisley Knows Best,” to avoid paying taxes. Todd Chrisley is serving his sentence in a Florida prison, while Julie Chrisley is in a Kentucky prison.
Trump said in the call he didn’t know the couple, but said he heard they were “given pretty harsh treatment.”
“I hear they’re terrific people, and this should not have happened,” he said.
Their children thanked Trump profusely for the impending pardon.
“Thank you so much, Mr. President,” the couple’s daughter, Savannah Chrisley, said in the call.
Alex Little, a partner at the law firm that helped the Chrisleys with their petition for the pardon, said in a statement late Tuesday the couple was targeted in the prosecution because of their fame and conservative politics.
“This pardon corrects a deep injustice and restores two devoted parents to their family and community,” Little said.
The Atlanta-based federal appeals court that has six Trump-appointed judges upheld the Chrisleys’ convictions in June 2024, but ruled Julie Chrisley had to be resentenced. The appellate court found sufficient evidence that Julie Chrisley had participated in the bank fraud scheme from 2007 to 2012, but said it wasn’t clear she was involved in the conspiracy when it began in 2006.
In September, Julie Chrisley was resentenced to seven years in prison after publicly apologizing for the first time in court. The judge reduced the amount of restitution she has to pay from $17.2 million to $4.7 million.
Immediately after the resentencing hearing, Savannah Chrisley, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she’d spoken with Trump, but not specifically about pardoning her parents. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in July and said her conversations with Trump were “nothing but full of love and support.”
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