Savannah Chrisley has opened up about how she is trying to get her incarcerated parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, released from federal prison, and she says she’s going “through the proper channels” to make it happen.
Todd and Julie were convicted of bank and tax fraud in 2022 and sentenced to a combined 19 years in federal prison. Since then, Savannah has been campaigning for the release of her mom and dad, who have continued to claim their innocence.
With Donald Trump back in the White House, Savannah hopes the President will pardon her parents. “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 told People.
Todd and Julie were indicted in 2019 and convicted in 2022 before reporting to their respective prisons in January 2023. Last year, the couple appealed their case; Todd’s request was denied, while Julie was granted a resentencing hearing. However, in September 2024, the judge upheld Julie’s original 84-month sentence at FMC Lexington.
Speaking to People about the original indictment and conviction, Savannah admitted, “We thought it was going to end differently.”
“We had lawyers who had told us it was going to end differently,” she added. “We stood in the truth, and we stood in what we knew to be the truth. We saw the corruption in 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.”
Since then, the Chrisley Knows Best alum has become the legal guardian of her younger siblings, Grayson (18), and Chloe (12), and has been open about her struggles of taking care of the family while also trying to keep strong for her parents.
“I think that I’ve gone through a lot of s*** in my life. I really have,” the 27-year-old reality star told the publication. “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. 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 revealed that her fighter mentality comes from her dad, saying he 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 concluded, “[Resilience] just comes, I think, by having that encouragement. 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.”
Savannah has long been campaigning for Trump to pardon her parents. She spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last July and attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Investor Summit at Mar-a-Lago back in November.
On the latest episode of her Unlocked podcast, Savannah described herself as “a daughter fighting for justice for my parents.”
“I work my a** off day in and day out to make the connections I need to make,” she continued. “I’ve hired the right lawyers, I’ve done the research, I have fought… I have forced my way into rooms that I was really never meant to be in. I had zero political connections two years ago. I have educated myself on politics, on the topic of criminal justice reform, you name it, I’ve done it. Because I want my parents home.”