Savannah Chrisley is turning to President Donald Trump for help as her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, remain incarcerated after being convicted of federal bank fraud and tax evasion.
The former reality stars, who married in 1996 and share three children, are currently serving out their combined 19-year prison sentence at separate facilities in Kentucky and Florida. Each reported to prison in January 2023 after being convicted in November 2022.
As Todd and Julie’s attempts to appeal their case have so far been unsuccessful, Savannah told People magazine that their family are now pursuing other avenues, including seeking a presidential pardon for the couple from Trump.
“I know that I am going through the proper channels to do so, and I’m going to bring as much awareness to it as possible because these things should not happen,” she said of her parents’ conviction.
In November 2022, a jury found the former “Chrisley Knows Best” stars guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks in the Atlanta area out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans, in addition to conspiring to defraud the IRS.
Todd was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, but he had two years removed from his sentence. Julie was given a seven-year prison sentence after initially being indicted in August 2019 on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.
In June 2024, a three-panel judge upheld the convictions but found a legal error in how the trial judge calculated Julie’s original sentencing. Her seven-year prison sentence was vacated at the time, but it was reinstated by a federal judge in September 2024.
“We thought it was going to end differently,” Savannah told People. “We had lawyers who had told us it was going to end differently.
She continued, “We stood in the truth, and we stood in what we knew to be the truth. We saw the corruption in [Georgia’s] Fulton County. We saw how the judge handled the case. We just saw all of it and we’re like, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way it’s going to end this way.’ But, it did.”
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In July 2024, Savannah gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in which she alleged that her family had been “persecuted by rogue prosecutors in Fulton County.”
In an interview with CBS News earlier in February, Todd and Julie’s lawyer, Jay Surgent, shared their plans to request a pardon from Trump.
“They believe that the president will seriously consider pardoning both Julie and Todd Chrisley as a result of the unfair treatment they received in the criminal justice system,” said Surgent, who described the couple as Trump supporters.
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Surgent told the outlet that he believed Trump would consider the pardon since “their constitutional rights were violated by the search of a warehouse without a warrant” in addition to other matters.
He said that the couple’s request for pardon will be filed within the next two to four months.
In her interview with People, Savannah explained that she had become more resilient due to the adversities she has faced.
“I think that I’ve gone through a lot of s— in my life,” she said. “I really have. And I’ve gone through a lot of things that I’ve never even publicly spoken about.”
“When you fight silent battles, resilience just comes,” Savannah added. “When you fight silent battles, there was no one that was there for you. Whether you didn’t allow someone to be there for you, or whether you just didn’t have people there, you just learned to pick yourself up.”
Savannah said that she was also inspired by her father.
“I come from a place [where] my dad was very much just like, ‘Come on, we can do this. We can do this. You can do anything a man can do, if not better.’ My dad was a constant encourager in that way,” she said.
“[Resilience] just comes, I think, by having that encouragement,” she continued. “Also, knowing that I don’t ever want to give up, and I want to give my future children something to look at and be proud of.”
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