Todd Chrisley speaks out for 1st time since Trump's pardon
Todd Chrisley made his first public comments Friday since being released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Chrisley thanked the Trump administration and his family's supporters when speaking to reporters at a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was joined by his daughter, Savannah Chrisley, and his attorney.
"I want to thank every person that has prayed for us, that has stayed in the fight, and that fought for the truth to come out," Todd Chrisley said. "I am grateful for it."
His wife, Julie Chrisley, did not attend the news conference, the family's first since Todd and Julie Chrisley were released from prison May 28 after being sentenced in November 2022 to a combined 19 years in prison on charges including fraud and tax evasion.
Todd Chrisley -- whose family rose to fame on the decadelong reality TV show "Chrisley Knows Best" -- was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 16 months of probation, while Julie Chrisley was ordered to serve seven years in prison and 16 months of probation. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.
The charges against the Chrisleys stem from activity that occurred at least as early as 2007, when the couple allegedly provided false information to banks and fabricated bank statements when applying for and receiving million of dollars in loans, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In 2014, two years after the alleged bank fraud scheme ended, the couple is accused of fabricating bank statements and a credit report that had "been physically cut and taped or glued together when applying for and obtaining a lease for a home in California."
In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said the Chrisleys had engaged in a "fifteen-year fraud spree."
Todd Chrisley on Friday continued to maintain his innocence from the crimes to which he and his wife were convicted, saying, "I was convicted of something I did not do."
Savannah Chrisley -- -- who had appealed to the Trump administration for pardons for her parents and spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention -- also said she would not have fought so hard for pardons for her parents had she not believed in their innocence.
"At the end of the day, I will sit and say, as his daughter, I believe in law and order. If I believe that my parents did exactly what they were accused of doing, then yes, you have a consequence for it," she said. "Do I think the consequence should have been 12 years? No, I do not. That's not even a fair sentence if it was true. But I know in my word of hearts it was not true."
Both Todd Chrisley and his daughter said that following the pardon, they plan to use their platform to advocate for criminal justice reform.
The family has been filming a new reality TV show that will premiere on Lifetime later this year, according to the network.
"I understand the shame that's around [incarceration], but I refuse to feed into that, because shame is like a cancer that just spreads, and I have no shame," said Todd Chrisley. "So I will continue to fight for all the guys that I dealt with and that I was blessed to be with at FPC Pensacola [the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida]. I will continue to expose the injustices that go on there and throughout the [U.S. Department of Justice] and throughout the Bureau of Prisons."
He later added, "We're blessed to have our family back, and we're blessed to be coming back to television, because we do have a much bigger story to tell now than we ever have."
In addition to Savannah Chrisley, Todd and Julie Chrisley are also the parents of two sons, Grayson Chrisley and Chase Chrisley.
Todd Chrisley also has two children from his first marriage, Kyle Chrisley and Lindsie Chrisley.
The Chrisleys are also the primary caretakers for Kyle Chrisley's young daughter Chloe.
Todd Chrisley said that during his prison sentence, he was able to talk with his children daily and email frequently with Julie Chrisley, who served her sentence at the FMC Lexington prison in Kentucky.
The father of five said when he woke up at home for the first time in several years, it at first didn't feel real.
"I woke up the first morning and I was looking around. I'm like, 'This is really real. I'm home,'" Todd Chrisley said. "So 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."
