A lawyer for Todd and Julie Chrisley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast that he hopes Donald Trump’s pardons will pave the way for more leniency from the Oval Office.
“I hope that other presidents in the future will look at this as sort of a model to start pardoning people more. We have the highest incarceration rate in the country,” Alex Little said.
“We put people in prison [and] we forget about them.”
Little appeared on the Washington Wednesday edition of the Politically Georgia podcast. The Chrisleys are among the more than 1,500 people Trump has pardoned in his second term, starting with those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
AJC journalists Patricia Murphy and Tia Mitchell asked AJC legal affairs reporter Rosie Manins about the presidential power.
“So mass pardons is not anything new,” said Manins. “[But] people have noticed with the latest Trump pardons, it tends to be people who he believes were perhaps unfairly prosecuted by the Biden administration for political reasons.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Manins said that ultimately the use of wide spread pardons could erode faith in the justice system and deter federal investigators and prosecutors.
“I’ve been told the best and the brightest of the legal industry are not going to want to work for the Department of Justice when they don’t feel like their work is going to be meaningful,” she said.
The Chrisleys were serving federal prison sentences after being convicted three years ago of bank fraud and tax evasion before they were pardoned by Trump last month.
Little also spoke about the Chrisley family returning to reality television in the near future.
“I think you’ll see probably two shows coming,” said Little. “One soon with the Chrisley kids and then one later with the Chrisley parents as well.”
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