ATLANTA — After more than 2 1/2 years in federal prison, reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley are on their way home to Nashville after being pardoned by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Trump’s pardon brings to an end a combined 19-year sentence for the couple after they were convicted of fraud.
Channel 2 Action News first reported in 2017 how the Chrisleys lied about where they lived and owned hundreds of thousands in back taxes.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were federally indicted in August 2019. Prosecutors said the couple submitted fake documents to banks when applying for loans.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Julie Chrisley sent a fake credit report and bank statements showing far more money than they had in their accounts to a California property owner in July 2014 while trying to rent a home.
A few months after they began using the home, in October 2014, they refused to pay rent, causing the owner to have to threaten them with eviction.
TRENDING STORIES:
- President Donald Trump to pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley
- The Chrisleys are coming back to reality TV to expose the ‘raw truth of their lives’
- Savannah Chrisley was stepping into Sam’s Club when she got Trump’s call about parents’ pardon
- Julie Chrisley wants her sentence vacated - again - and wants a new judge
The money the Chrisleys received from their reality television show, “Chrisley Knows Best,” went to a company they controlled called 7C’s Productions, but they didn’t declare it as income on federal tax returns, prosecutors said.
The couple failed to file or pay their federal income taxes on time for multiple years.
The family had moved to Tennessee by the time the indictment was filed, but the criminal charges stem from when they lived in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Trump’s pardon now absolves the couple of tax evasion and bank fraud convictions that were years in the making.
Michael Mears is a former attorney and law professor. He told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna that pardons are usually used at the end of presidential terms for cases with additional information.
“It’s extremely unusual. It’s extremely out of the mainstream of when, where, and how pardons are used,” Mears said. “There is no moral basis, no policy basis that I can discern that would be the basis for this type of pardon.”
Because the Chrisleys were in two different prisons, Savannah Chrisley picked up Todd, and her brother Grayson, picked up Julie.
According to the Chrisleys’ attorneys, they are now on the way home to Nashville.
©2025 Cox Media Group
