Trump to pardon a reality TV couple convicted in $36M fraud

President Donald Trump plans to pardon the stars of a reality TV show who were convicted of bank and tax fraud.

The pending pardons of Todd and Julie Chrisley, whose extravagant lifestyle was chronicled in a show that ran for 10 seasons on the USA Network, were announced Tuesday in a video released by the White House of Trump calling their daughter, a conservative influencer, to give them the news.

“It’s a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” Trump said in the call to Savannah Chrisley. “Is that OK? We’ll try getting it done tomorrow. So I don’t know them but give them my regards and wish them a good life.”

The act of clemency is just the latest example of Trump’s unusual use of his pardon powers, which in recent days has been used to clear the slate for a Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery and a former nursing home executive convicted of tax offenses and days away from starting his prison sentence.

In November 2022, Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced to prison terms of 12 and seven years, respectively, for conspiring to defraud banks in Atlanta of more than $36 million and evading taxes.

“As this sentencing proves, when you lie, cheat, and steal, justice is blind to your fame, fortune, and position,” Keri Farley, FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge, said in a statement after the Chrisleys’ sentencing. “The FBI is proud to work with our law enforcement partners at the IRS and the U.S. Attorney's office to pursue and prosecute individuals that are driven by greed to evade the law.”.

Savannah Chrisley has long used the public domain to fight for her parents’ release. She has billed herself as an advocate for prison reform, and spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024.

She continued to plead her parents’ case in a May interview with Fox News host Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law.

“When I saw obviously what the president was going through, what my family has gone through, it was eerily similar,” Chrisley said. “And I knew I just had to speak up. And that’s why I chose to speak at the RNC.”

Trump concurred.

“They were given a pretty harsh treatment, based on what I'm hearing,” he told Chrisley in the video.

On Monday, the president announced he was pardoning former Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of federal bribery charges, in a post on his social media platform. Jenkins was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison. But Trump intervened, calling the sheriff a victim of a “corrupt and weaponized Biden DOJ.”