This week, Donald Trump announced the pardon of Todd and Julie Chrisley, two reality TV stars who committed fraud.
The evidence was overwhelmingly against them, but their daughter, Savannah, started playing up to Trump right away, and it worked, with Trump giving her exactly what she wanted.
Chrisley Knows Best was a reality show that ran for about a decade, following the exploits of rich couple living in Georgia.
What fans did not know at the time was that the husband and wife were falsifying documents to obtain massive loans, then more loans to cover those loans while also not paying their taxes.
According to prosecutors, local banks in Atlanta were out about $36 million from their little scam, not to mention the back taxes they had not paid.
The money they “borrowed” was often used to buy exotic cars, expensive trips, and designer clothes, all promoting the “brand” they portrayed on TV.
From the moment her parents were charged, daughter Savannah Chrisley was trying to paint a different picture of a family that was the victim of a legal witch hunt (that sure sounds familiar).
Trump issued the pardon that Savannah had been asking for, stating that the family had been “given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing.”
There is literally zero proof that anything unjust was done, and when you consider the amount of money they swindled, the 12 and 7-year sentences Todd and Julie were given seemed appropriate.
I believe the pardon was nothing more than Trump being played by Savannah.
Trump loves to have people gush over him or compare themselves to him, and that is what Savannah did right out of the gate. After her parents were sent to prison in 2022, Savannah suddenly announced that she was a Republican, as well as cozying up to members of the Trump family.
In September 2023, Savannah appeared on The Right View, which is a podcast hosted by Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s son, Eric. During the show, she said prosecutors tried to vilify her parents by calling them the “Trumps of the South,” adding, “For me that was, it should scare people, that we have prosecutors using such a polarizing statement to potentially sway the jurors.”
The hook was set, and at this point, all she needed was for Trump to bite, and he did. This was eerily similar to the corrupt Nevada politician Trump pardoned who stole money from a memorial fund for two police officers killed in the line of duty, who had been referred to as “Lady Trump.”
Again, to me, Trump got played, as he has in the past with other pardons by people who claim the government was weaponized against them. That was not the case here. These people are criminals. They had their day in court, and they were convicted, and Trump just set them free because they gushed over him. It’s shameful.
