Reality stars and convicted fraudsters Todd and Julie Chrisley were released from federal prison Wednesday night, just one day after President Trump announced plans to pardon the couple.
Todd, 56, was freed first from FPC Pensacola in Florida after serving just over two years of his 12-year sentence. His 52-year-old wife was let out of FMC Lexington in Kentucky, where she had been serving out a seven-year prison term.
“We will forever be grateful that we have an administration that is reuniting families,” the Chrisleys’ daughter, Savannah, told reporters outside the Florida prison as she waited for her father.
“He is our president but he’s also a person with a heart who loves people, who loves people well,” she added during teary remarks.
The “Chrisley Knows Best” reality stars first reported to prison in 2023 after being convicted of tax evasion. Federal prosecutors found them guilty of faking documents to obtain over $30 million in loans, and then dumping them by declaring bankruptcy.
But President Trump announced plans to pardon the Tennessee couple on Tuesday and followed through Wednesday afternoon, telling their adult kids from the oval office that the sentences were “pretty harsh treatment.”
“This should not have happened,” the president told 27-year-old Savannah by phone. “They were given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing.”
“Your parents are going to be free and clean,” he said. “I don’t know them, but give them my regards and wish them a good life.”
The glamorous couple’s daughter has been championing their case in conservative circles since their conviction, going so far as to speak at the Republican National Convention in 2024 to proclaim that they’d been “persecuted by rogue prosecutors” for their conservative values.
Todd and Julie – who celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary days ago on May 25 – haven’t seen or spoken to each other since they reported for prison in 2023, Savannah said.
But once the family is settled back home, Savannah told reporters they’re ready to jump back into television and have a Lifetime show waiting for them “that will document all of these things.”
“It’s all God and President Trump at this point,” she said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
