"Well-deserving Americans": Trump pardons convicted reality TV fraudsters Todd, Julie Chrisley
Donald Trump officially pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley on Wednesday, freeing the former reality TV stars from combined sentences of 19 years in prison on tax evasion and fraud charges.
The Chrisleys were the attractions at the center of USA Network's "Chrisley Knows Best," a series that followed the wealthy real estate developers for 10 seasons.
In 2022, the couple were convicted over what prosecutors called a "fifteen-year fraud spree." The couple was found to have duped banks into granting them millions of dollars in loans via the use of falsified bank statements and outright lies. Todd and Julie were sentenced to 12 years and 7 years in prison, respectfully, and ordered to pay more than $17 million in restitution.
Trump's pardons wipe the slate clean for the pair of former television stars. In a statement, Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said that the Chrisleys' "sentences were far too harsh."
'The President is always pleased to give well-deserving Americans a second chance, especially those who have been unfairly targeted and overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system," Fields said.
The president called the Chrisleys' daughter, Savannah, from the Oval Office on Tuesday to inform her of the pardon.
"Your parents are going to be free and clean," Trump said, in a video posted to X.
The Chrisleys weren't the only notable prisoners to have their sentences cut short by Trump this week. He commuted the federal life sentence of Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover. Hoover will be moved out of federal prison, following the commutation, as he was also convicted on a state-level murder charge.
'The federal government has done its part. Now it's time for the State of Illinois to finish the job," Hoover's attorney Justin Moore told the Chicago Sun-Times.
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