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Julie and Todd Chrisley received federal pardons this week as part of Donald Trump’s recent blitz of releasing criminals from prison.
After serving two years and some change of his massive 12-year sentence on fraud and conspiracy, Todd is free.
Daughter Savannah Chrisley was excited to share the news.
She couldn’t help but gush over her father’s alleged “jacked” post-prison body.
Todd Chrisley is out of prison and is now ‘jacked’
Late on Wednesday, May 28, Savannah Chrisley took to her Instagram Story to express her happiness in a video.
Todd Chrisley had been released from the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida.
Her Story videos showed the ride home to Nashville, Tennessee.
During the Story video, Savannah asks her father: “What are you trying to get me to do?”
Todd proffers his arm, inviting her: “Feel that muscle.”
Savannah puts her hand on his upper arm, announcing:
“Y’all, I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard. It’s hard. Jacked.”
Julie is also free
Like Todd, Julie is also no longer in prison. She had been serving at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky.
Todd’s sentence had been for 12 years. Julie’s had been for 7.
Now that Trump has pardoned them as part of a battery of pardons to people who financially or otherwise support him, the Chrisleys are not only out of prison, but no longer have to pay restitution to their victims.
As we have discussed, these were particularly harsh sentences for non-violent crimes.
Doing things like defrauding a bank to take out massive loans is absolutely immoral and a crime, but spending most of — or more than — a decade in prison seemed excessive.
Of course, the just solution would not have been a pardon. Executive clemency also allows a president to commute federal sentences.
The pardon reverses righteous convictions alongside possibly excessive sentences.
Is there a silver lining to this?
In addition to allegedly getting swole or whatever Todd Chrisley seemed to do in prison, he did raise the alarm about the inhumane conditions behind bars.
One has to consider that, if the “nice” federal prison where a rich white celebrity serves his sentence for white collar crimes is such an awful place, other facilities might be worse.
Whatever we think of their sentence, Todd and Julie Chrisley have made it abundantly clear that they are not good people.
Their pardon is a case of one criminal freeing another.
That does not change the importance of prison reform.
As a society, we should design prison facilities as we would if we knew that innocent people would be imprisoned there. (And we do know that)
Todd and Julie aren’t innocent, but they’re out anyway.
And they carry with them memories of injustices and hardships faced within our nation’s carceral system.
We’d love to see them continue to advocate for improved prison conditions, perhaps on the family’s new reality series. But we’re not really optimistic enough to hope that something good might happen. Not in 2025.
