Savannah Chrisley, the daughter of recently pardoned reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, said President Donald Trump spoke with her on the phone after freeing her parents.
Chrisley, appearing on NewsNation’s On Balance, said Trump said, "you guys don’t look like terrorists."
"He did say he was like, 'you know, you guys don’t look like terrorists.' To me, was his exact words, which was pretty funny," Chrisley said. "But he just said that their sentences were outrageous and they were treated unfairly from everyone that he has spoken to. He wanted to bring my parents home and not just grant them a commutation, but he wanted to give them a full pardon, well, and that means that it is like it never happened."
"Your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope that we can do it by tomorrow," Trump said in a call with their daughter, according to a video posted online Tuesday by a White House aide.
The Chrisleys were convicted in 2022 for conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta area out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents. They were also found guilty of tax evasion, obscuring their earnings while showcasing a luxurious way of living that authorities said included high-priced cars, designer clothes, real estate, and travel.
Prosecutors said the couple walked away from their responsibility for repayment when Todd Chrisley declared bankruptcy and left $20-plus million in unpaid loans. Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in federal prison, and Todd Chrisley got 12 years behind bars. The couple was also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.
Chrisley said the sentence her parents got for tax evasion was excessive.
"If I [believed] that my parents were guilty of what they did, then yes, they should have gone to prison," Chrisley said. "I do not believe that even if they were guilty, the time they got was … mean, it was absolutely insane. But I brought up in our case, the huge Fourth Amendment violations, the illegal seizures, the fact that they had my father’s face on a dart board, the IRS agent lying on the stand and referring to us as the Trumps of the South, and also accusing my family of terrorism just so they could run a financial report."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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