(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the reality TV show “Chrisley Knows Best” who in 2022 were found guilty of federal charges of tax evasion and conspiring to swindle community banks. The Chrisley family has implored the Trump administration to release the pair and […]
Politics
Trump to pardon reality TV’s Todd and Julie Chrisley after tax evasion conviction
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(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the reality TV show “Chrisley Knows Best” who in 2022 were found guilty of federal charges of tax evasion and conspiring to swindle community banks.
The Chrisley family has implored the Trump administration to release the pair and last week Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump aired an interview on her Fox News program with the Chrisleys’ daughter Savannah.
“Your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” the president told Savannah in a video recording of their phone call posted by the White House on X on Tuesday.
Todd Chrisley was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison and Julie to seven. Both terms were later shortened, according to media reports.
Prosecutors had said the two submitted false bank statements and other documents to obtain millions in personal loans from Atlanta area community banks before they became became TV stars, and spent the money on luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel.
Ten seasons of “Chrisley Knows Best,” portraying Todd Chrisley as a real estate tycoon and patriarch of a wealthy family in the Atlanta area, aired between 2014 and 2023. Four seasons of the spinoff “Growing Up Chrisley” were broadcast between 2019 and 2022.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Donna Bryson and Stephen Coates)