On May 27, President Donald Trump took a break from posting about Taylor Swift to add two people to his growing roster of presidential pardons: Todd and Julie Chrisley. The couple, who starred in USA Network’s Chrisley Knows Best, was convicted of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $36 million in personal loans and conspiring to defraud the IRS in 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Julie was sentenced to seven years in federal prison while Todd was sentenced to 12 years, and they were ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution, per NBC.
In a video posted to X on Tuesday, Trump told Savannah Chrisley, the couple’s 27-year-old daughter, that her parents would be receiving a pardon. Alice Johnson, the administration’s “pardon czar” who was previously pardoned by Trump with the help of Kim Kardashian, was in attendance. “It’s a terrible thing, it’s a terrible thing, but it’s a great thing because your parents are gonna be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow, is that okay?” Trump said. “I don’t know them, but give them my regards and wish them a good life.”
According to Trump, their sentencing was a mistake. “They were given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing,” he told Savannah. “Congratulate your parents, I hear they’re terrific people,” adding, “This should not have happened.” “This,” meaning justice? Okay then.
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After receiving the news, Savannah immediately took to Instagram to post a video of herself wearing a comically enormous and hideous “Make America Great Again” hat. “We are freaking out over here, I have shed so many tears,” she said. “The president called me personally as I walking into Sam’s Club and notified me that he was signing pardon paperwork for both my parents.” She says her parents are expected to come home “tonight or tomorrow.”
Savannah has been lobbying for a pardon for her parents “through the proper channels,” she told People. She spoke at the Republican National Convention back in July and criticized the prosecutors who brought her parents’ case, and also had lunch at the White House this past February, according to her Instagram. “I will never stop fighting for the millions of others crushed by the Department of Injustice. We will not be silenced,” she wrote in her caption.
Trump, who is a convicted felon, has already pardoned over 1,500 people who were indicted in the violent January 6 insurrection on the Capitol. He’s also pardoned celebrities in the past, including Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. All of this has me wondering: Could Jen Shah be next?
