The Chrisleys: a $36M bank-fraud couple pardoned after their daughter campaigned

Editor's note: the pardons are on the official record, and reporting documents their daughter's campaigning for the president, but no official record establishes that return.

On May 27, 2025, Trump announced pardons for reality-TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted in 2022 of a roughly $36 million bank-fraud and tax-evasion scheme and serving 12- and 7-year sentences respectively - wiping out their prison time and restitution. Trump personally called their daughter Savannah Chrisley, who had spoken at the 2024 Republican National Convention and appealed to the administration for pardons, to deliver the news.

The pardon is a clear instance of clemency tracking campaign support: the daughter's prominent, public advocacy for Trump preceded the pardon of her parents' financial crimes. It came in the same late-May cluster as Jenkins (PAY-06) and the Walczak pardon (whose recipient's mother had attended a $1-million-per-plate Trump fundraiser weeks earlier), which together crystallized the loyalty/donor pattern.

It converts a serious financial-fraud conviction into a reversible outcome contingent on a family member's political loyalty and visibility.