Disgraced reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted in a scheme to swindle banks out of tens of millions of dollars, walked free from prison Wednesday after they were pardoned by President Donald Trump, their lawyers said.
The pair, known for the show “Chrisley Knows Best,” were headed home to Nashville following their release, law firm Litson PLLC said.
The “Trumps of the South,” who were convicted in 2022 of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States, received the pardons after intervention by one of their daughters.
Alex Little, an attorney for the Chrisleys, said in an interview that he did not know why Trump chose to pardon his clients this week.
But as part of his pitch, Little said, he supplied Trump’s “pardon czar,” Alice Johnson, with a binder filled with court documents and testimonials.
“President Trump feels very focused on the issue of criminal justice because he has been a focus of investigations that were directed at him,” Little said. “And he’s treated it differently because of that.”
Trump is a convicted felon who was found guilty last year by a New York City jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He was sentenced to a penalty-free unconditional discharge.
Little said the Chrisleys did not attempt to win a pardon from President Joe Biden and that one of their daughters, Savannah Chrisley, pushed for a pardon when she met with members of the Trump family before Trump’s inauguration.
The Chrisleys, he said, were “prosecuted because they were celebrities.”
“They were treated more harshly because of their status,” he said. “And that’s not the way our criminal justice system is supposed to work.”
Musa Ghanayem, a lawyer for the Chrisleys’ daughter Lindsie Chrisley, told NBC News that Trump made the right call.
“When they make a pardon sometimes presidents get it right, sometimes they get it wrong,” Ghanayem said. “This time I think he got it right.”
The team involved in pardoning the pair, known for their roles on the TV show “Chrisley Knows Best,” appears to have included some major players in Trump’s orbit, including former federal prosecutor Brett Tolman, who helped win a pardon for Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Savannah Chrisley dropped Tolman’s name in a speech in July at the Republican National Convention, where she referred to him as “a lawyer of mine” and claimed her parents were prosecuted “due to our public profile and conservative beliefs.”
Savannah Chrisley recounted that a prosecutor referred to her family “as the Trumps of the South.”
“He meant it as an insult, but let me tell you, boy, do I wear that as a badge of honor,” she said.
Savannah Chrisley in February. Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images file
In addition, Savannah Chrisley revealed on her podcast in April 2024 that she had teamed up with Tolman to possibly work on conservative criminal justice reform.
Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, got into the business of lobbying the White House for pardons on behalf of well-heeled clients in the waning days of the first Trump presidency.
The Chrisleys are the latest high-profile people to win pardons from Trump after having claimed to be victims of a weaponized Biden Justice Department.
Trump pardoned former Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper County, Virginia, on Monday, before Jenkins’ 10-year federal prison sentence for bribery and corruption was set to start.
And Tuesday, Trump pardoned a convicted tax cheat named Paul Walczak, whose mother contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.
“Paul Walczak is an entrepreneur targeted by the Biden administration over his family’s conservative politics,” White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in defense of the pardon.
On Wednesday, Trump floated the idea of pardoning the men convicted in a scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump officially signed the pardons for the Chrisleys on Wednesday. He also signed a commutation for former Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover, as well as a pardon for former Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., who was convicted of tax fraud and related charges last year.
Trump also just pardoned James and Marlene Kernan, a couple from Oriskany, New York, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to willfully employing a three-time convicted felon at their businesses.
An assistant U.S. attorney told NBC News that the high-profile pardons were demoralizing.
“The general feeling is why are we working so hard to enforce the law when everything we do can be erased with the stroke of a pen?” the person said. “Clearly, the White House is peddling influence and will pardon anyone who fits the ‘weaponization’ narrative or who has something to offer.”
Trump was president when the Chrisleys were first indicted in 2019 and William Barr was the attorney general. They were convicted along with their accountant of bilking banks out of more than $36 million.
The Chrisleys portrayed themselves as hard-working, Jesus-loving real estate moguls on the hit USA Network show that ran for 10 seasons starting in 2014. But federal prosecutors said they were swindlers who began defrauding banks before they became reality TV stars and used the ill-gotten gains to support their lavish lifestyle in suburban Atlanta.
Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years.
Their accountant, Peter Tarantino, was convicted on tax charges and served a three-year sentence. He was released in January.
The Chrisleys formally requested a pardon in February, when Trump was back in the White House.
“They believe that the president will seriously consider pardoning both Julie and Todd Chrisley as a result of the unfair treatment they received in the criminal justice system,” Jay Surgent, an attorney for the Chrisleys, told NBC News at the time.
Trump called their children Tuesday with the news.
“It’s a terrible thing, but it’s a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean,” Trump said on the call. “We’ll try getting it done tomorrow, so give them — I don’t know them — but give them my regards and wish them well. Wish them a good life.”
Their son Grayson Chrisley replied, “Mr. President, I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back.”
Since the start of his second term in the White House, Trump has extended pardons and commutations to thousands of people, including roughly 1,500 criminal defendants who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Chrisleys were struggling financially when, “out of the blue,” they got an opportunity to audition for a reality show that turned them into stars, their lawyer Bruce Morris said during the couple’s federal fraud trial.
Little did not rule out that the Chrisleys might return to reality TV.
“Right now, their focus is reuniting as a family and spending family time together,” he said. “They are both people who have always been in the public eye, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to do that.”
Ryan J. Reilly and Katherine Doyle contributed.
