The Chrisleys worked for their release.
After Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley returned home from prison following unexpected presidential pardons from Donald Trump, the White House credits their daughter Savannah Chrisley for the decision.
“The celebrity part really didn’t play a role in this,” Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson shared on NewsNation Live May 29. “I’m going to say that if they did not have a daughter like Savannah who was out there fighting for them, they would not have been pardoned.”
“These are everyday Americans who deserve a second chance,” she continued. “I’ve really been looking at those who pose no safety risk, don’t have victims of violent crimes. These people need to be returned to their families. They really get a chance to have a second shot at life.”
Alice commended Savannah, 27, for stepping up since her parents—who also share 28-year-old son Chase Chrisley, as well as Todd and ex-wife Teresa Terry’s kids Lindsie Chrisley, 35, and Kyle Chrisley, 33—were convicted of tax evasion and wire fraud in 2022.
“This woman has worked relentlessly for her parents,” she said. “I know that everyone in prison wishes they had an advocate like Savannah Chrisley.”
The Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley host—the legal guardian of her younger siblings Grayson, 18, and Chloe, 11, since their arrest—had brought visibility to her parents’ case, as well as appealing the decision with the courts.
After years of advocacy, Alice—whose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018 after Kim Kardashian’s criminal justice reform campaign—revealed that it was their eldest daughter who first received the news.
“I was there with the president when he called them, so he was the one who told them,” she explained. “He called Savannah to let her know that her parents were being set free.”
Savannah shared insight into the emotional experience, telling E! News in a statement, “For the past two and a half years, I’ve done everything in my power to fight for my parents’ freedom and bring them home.”
“This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family,” she wrote. “Today is a victory for our family, but the fight against wrongful convictions and injustice within our prison system is far from over. I will continue to use my voice and platform to advocate for those who do not have one.”
Keep reading for a closer look at Todd and Julie’s legal saga, and tune into E! on June 1 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to catch up on Chrisley Knows Best.
Indicted on Tax Evasion and Other Charges
Todd and Julie Chrisley were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury in Atlanta in August 2019 on charges included wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a document obtained by NBC News. Prosecutors claimed fraud began in the mid-aughts—inclusive of evading nearly $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016 and hiding over $1 million dollars from the IRS.
The day before the indictment was issued, Todd maintained he and his wife were innocent, and instead said a trusted employee had been stealing from and blackmailing the couple.
“We have nothing to hide and have done nothing to be ashamed of,” he wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. “Not only do we know we’ve done nothing wrong, but we’ve got a ton of hard evidence and bunch of corroborating witnesses that proves it.”
Todd and Julie Found Guilty
It wasn’t until three years later that the Chrisley Knows Best stars went to trial. Following three weeks of testimonies, the pair, who had pleaded not guilty, were convicted on all counts of tax evasion and bank fraud on June 7, 2022.
The U.S. attorney’s office had alleged the duo and their accountant Peter Tarantino—who stood trial with them—conspired to defraud banks out of more than $30 million over the course of a decade.
“As today’s outcome shows, when you lie, cheat and steal, justice is blind as to your fame, your fortune, and your position,” Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a June 2022 statement. “In the end, when driven by greed, the verdict of guilty on all counts for these three defendants proves once again that financial crimes do not pay.”
Sentenced to Multiple Years in Prison
Five months later, the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Todd to 12 years behind bars and Julie to seven years. (Peter was sentenced to three years in prison.)
“Over the course of a decade, the defendants defrauded banks out of tens of millions of dollars while evading payment of their federal income taxes,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a November 2022 statement. “Their lengthy sentences reflect the magnitude of their criminal scheme and should serve as a warning to others tempted to exploit our nation’s community banking system for unlawful personal gain.”
However, Julie and Todd’s respective sentences were shortened in September 2023—with Julie scheduled to be released a year and three months earlier, and Todd two years earlier than his originally scheduled 2035 release.
“Without a doubt, Todd and Julie are model incarcerated individuals who received exorbitant sentences,” Jay Surgent, the pair’s attorney, told Insider in September 2023. “I believe Todd is down to 10 years and Julie is now at five years.”
Starting Their Sentences
The couple started their respective prison sentences in January 2023, with Todd serving his time at Federal Correctional Institution (FPI) Pensacola in Florida and Julie at a different federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky.
No Contact
Six months after Julie and Todd reported to their respective prisons, their daughter Savannah Chrisley shared insight into how the duo were doing, revealing that her parents did not have contact during their time behind bars.
“195 days without a word to each other…” she wrote in an August 2023 Instagram story. “My heart is breaking…Please help to bring justice!”
She also pushed back at rumors about their time in prison.
“It’s hilarious because one of them was like, ‘Oh, he’s let himself go,'” she said on her Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast. “First off, news flash, they don’t sell hair color in commissary. So of course his hair is gray! But, you know what, I would tell him today, if he was out, keep it that way. Like, it looks good! He’s got a great prison barber.”
Todd Details Filthy Prison Conditions
However, Todd spoke out from behind bars about the mistreatment he faced at the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla.
“The food is dated,” he said in a phone interview on a December 2023 episode of Cuomo. “It’s a year past expiration.”
“You’ve got rats, you’ve got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is,” he continued. “They just covered it up with plastic and then tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling, and it dropped down on the top of the food.”
Beyond the horrors in the cafeteria, he alleged that someone also attempted to extort his family members.
“There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter,” he noted, “asking for $2,600 dollars a month for my protection.”
Savannah Chrisley Speaks Out
Savannah, who has custody of younger siblings Grayson and Chloe amid her parents’ sentences, has explained how their convictions and their lack of contact with one another has weighed on her.
“The last time they spoke was the morning they went into federal prison,” she shared with E! News March 2024, alleging that there’s “a lot of retaliation going on against my father for how outspoken we’ve been about conditions.”
In fact, she alleged that prison officials had been “blocking a lot of his emails correspondence to my mom.”
And while not wanting to make the experience about herself, she admitted that it was overwhelming at times.
“What’s tough for me is how Mom and Dad have that feeling that life is just continuing to move on without them,” Savannah explained on her podcast Unlocked in April 2024. “In a way, I have that feeling with people in my life because it’s like they just continue on living their lives.”
“I’m still sitting here struggling to catch my breath,” she continued. “Whether it’s financially with the kids, trying to parent, me in a relationship.”
Julie’s Prison Sentence Overturned
Julie’s seven-year prison sentence was overturned June 2024 following a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the panel upheld her convictions, the court ruled the judge in the 2022 trial miscalculated the reality star’s sentence.
“The district court did not identify the evidence it relied on to hold Julie accountable for losses incurred before 2007, and we cannot independently find it in the record,” the judges stated in their ruling. “So we vacate Julie’s sentence and remand solely for the district court to make the factual findings and calculations necessary to determine loss, restitution, and forfeiture as to Julie and to resentence her accordingly.”
Her case was handed to a lower court to determine how her sentencing would be adjusted while Todd’s sentencing remained unaffected.
A Tearful Apology
Three months after her prison sentence was overturned, an Atlanta court ultimately upheld Julie’s previous seven-year prison sentence. And she made a tearful apology—both to her children and the court.
“I would like to say I’ve had years to think about what I’ve wanted to say and I’m sorry for my actions and situations that let us to where we are today,” Julie said before the court, per People, during the Sept. 25 hearing. “I’ve had 20 months in prison, but it has been much more leading up to the trial and I apologize for my actions that led to where we are today,”
“I have done everything I can do to get closer to my family. I’ve taken tests for new skills, such as driving a forklift and serving food in proper ways,” she continued, “this has been the most difficult part of my life. I can’t ever repay my children for what they’ve had to go through and for that, I am so sorry,” she added.
President Donald Trump Pardons the Chrisleys
The Chrisleys are heading home. They received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, he told Savannah in a phone call May 27, 2025.
“For the past two and a half years, I’ve done everything in my power to fight for my parents’ freedom and bring them home,” Savannah said in a statement to E! News. “This moment is the answer to countless prayers, and I am beyond grateful to President Trump for seeing the truth and restoring my family.”
They were both released on May 28, 2025.
A New Normal
Following Todd and Julie’s release, the couple were quickly able to adapt into a new normal, but they both admitted their time behind bars had an effect on them.
As Todd said on My View with Lara Trump in June 2025. “We have changed, and if we did not change in these 28 months, it would have been wasted.”
And since the couple were supposed to spend several more months in prison, they detailed how surreal their early return home was for them.
“I woke up the first morning and I was looking around. I’m like, ‘This is really real. I’m home,'” Todd said at a May 2025 press conference. “I was grateful for our family to be all back in the same room, to be together, to share a meal together, to pray together and to know that we’re still in the fight together.”
