Reality TV's Julie Chrisley leaves Lexington prison after pardon

President Donald Trump signed pardons Wednesday for reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were serving federal prison sentences after being convicted three years ago of bank fraud and tax evasion.

The pardons paved the way for the couple, best known for the TV series “Chrisley Knows Best,” to be freed hours later. Todd Chrisley was released from a minimum-security prison camp in Pensacola in the evening, and Julie Chrisley left a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, according to Shannen Sharpe, a spokesperson for the couple’s attorney.

The Chrisleys’ TV show portrayed them as a tight-knit family with an extravagant lifestyle. Prosecutors at the couple’s 2022 trial said they spent lavishly on expensive cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel after taking out fraudulent bank loans worth millions of dollars and hiding their earnings from tax authorities.

Daughter Savannah Chrisley said officials in the Trump administration who reviewed her parents’ case had “seen the corruption.” She told reporters that the president delivered the news of the pardons himself, calling unexpectedly while she was at the grocery store.

Before she was pardoned, Julie Chrisley, 52, had been scheduled for release in January 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, while Todd Chrisley, 56, was to remain behind bars until September 2032.

Prosecutors said at trial that the Chrisleys had not yet become TV stars when they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans. New loans were taken out to pay off the old ones, according to prosecutors, until Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans.

The defense argued that an IRS officer gave false testimony during the trial and that prosecutors lacked evidence to support convictions.



(Photo Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)