Revealed, Chrisley Knows Best’s wild blackmail, drugs and ‘living in the closet’ rumours: As Trump pardons reality stars, TOM LEONARD uncovers shocking financial black hole – and what everyone’s now whispering about

While the US Constitution doesn’t allow Donald Trump to pardon himself, it doesn’t stop him from pardoning someone very much like him.

That seemed to be the thinking last week, at least, when the US President controversially announced he was pardoning Todd and Julie Chrisley, the disgraced stars of the reality TV series Chrisley Knows Best.

Beyond the fake platinum blonde mops, it’s easy to see how Trump might be able to empathise with Todd, 56, and Julie, 52.

Like Trump, the glossy married couple are property tycoons turned reality TV stars. Trump showed off his wealthy credentials on The Apprentice, on U.S. television for 11 years, and the Chrisleys rising to fame during ten seasons of their own show from 2014.

Like Trump, they were convicted of financial crimes. The President was last year found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records while Todd and Julie were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison respectively on charges of tax evasion and defrauding banks out of more than $36million (£27million) in loans in 2022.

And, in one final but crucial coincidence, the Chrisleys also insist that they were targeted by politically biased prosecutors because of their conservative values and fame.

Not for nothing, then, did prosecutors at their 2022 trial call the Chrisleys the ‘Trumps of the South’.

Beyond the fake platinum blonde mops, it’s easy to see how Trump might be able to empathise with Todd, 56, and Julie, 52

Todd and Julie were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison respectively on charges of tax evasion and defrauding banks out of more than $36million (£27million) in loans in 2022

That comparison was put to productive use last summer when the Chrisleys’ daughter, Savannah – a 27-year-old podcaster, social media ‘influencer’ and former Miss Tennessee Teen USA – addressed the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Dubbed ‘MAGA Barbie’ for her vocal Trump support and glamorous appearance, she discussed her parents’ persecution by ‘rogue prosecutors’ – one of whom gave them their ‘Trumps of the South’ nickname.

‘He meant it as an insult,’ she told the conference to thunderous applause. ‘But let me tell you, boy, do I wear it as a badge of honour.’

If her intention was to get the President’s attention, it obviously worked.

Last week – days after she appeared on The Donald’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump’s Fox News show – Savannah revealed that the President had called to announce her parents had been pardoned and were being released from prison.

In a video posted online by the White House, Trump told her that her parents are ‘going to be free and clean’, adding: ‘I don’t know them but give them my regards.

‘They’ve been given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing.’

The Chrisleys are just the latest example of Trump handing out pardons to high-profile supporters rather than those who have suffered miscarriages of justice. The President has already pardoned more than 40 people and issued 1,600 pardons to those charged or convicted in connection with the US Capitol Riot in 2021.

The Chrisleys’ pardon marks the most controversial twist yet in the outlandish story of this venal, multimillionaire couple who have captivated the US since their reality TV series first aired on the USA Network in 2014.

Over ten seasons, viewers followed the affluent lives of Todd and Julie – who married in 1996 – and their three children, Chase, Savannah and Grayson, in Georgia and Tennessee. Todd also had two older children – Lindsie and Kyle – from a previous marriage.

The series about a supposedly close-knit if dysfunctional family has been so successful that it spawned various spin-offs, including 2019’s Growing Up Chrisley, about Chase and Savannah in Los Angeles, and the video series What’s Cooking With Julie Chrisley.

Todd had even been unveiled as the host of a new dating series, Love Limo, when his trial started in 2022.

Although nothing quite so exciting as a criminal conviction and prison, the original series certainly offered drama – including Kyle’s struggle with substance abuse and persistent rumours that Todd is gay.

Asked about the claims in 2017, Todd denied he was ‘living in a closet’ and replied indelicately: ‘I’m flattered that people think I can get laid on both ends.

‘So, that doesn’t bother me and my wife certainly is flattered that as many men want her husband as there are women.’

The Chrisleys’ daughter, Savannah – a 27-year-old podcaster, social media ‘influencer’ and former Miss Tennessee Teen USA – addresses the 2024 Republican National Convention

Over ten seasons, viewers followed the affluent lives of Todd and Julie – who married in 1996 – and their three children, Chase, Savannah and Grayson, in Georgia and Tennessee. Todd also had two older children – Lindsie and Kyle – from a previous marriage

Todd’s daughter Lindsie also ramped up the family tension in 2019 when she accused Todd and her half-brother Chase of attempting to blackmail her. She said they’d threatened to release a sex tape involving her unless she lied over an unspecified incident.

Todd returned fire, alleging that Lindsie had had extramarital affairs with two male contestants on The Bachelor, a hit dating reality show.

The Chrisleys, then, are possibly not America’s classiest family. But, even as they paraded their luxurious lifestyle of expensive cars and properties, murky rumours about their financial dealings lurked beneath the surface.

Their trial in 2022 heard how, before the Chrisleys became reality television stars, they submitted the false bank statements, audit reports and personal financial statements to banks to obtain loans. Prosecutors said the couple spent lavishly, using new loans to pay off old ones.

The court heard how the Chrisleys walked away from their financial responsibilities when Todd declared bankruptcy in 2012, leaving more than $20million in unpaid loans. The couple also used a company to hide income from their TV show and avoid paying a $500,000 tax bill, said prosecutors.

The couple’s lawyers claimed the trial was marred by illegal searches, unreliable testimony and biased prosecution, but a jury was unconvinced and found them guilty – sentencing Todd to 12 years in prison (later reduced to ten) and Julie to seven years. Their accountant was also convicted and received a three-year sentence.

The President was last year found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records

Three years on, however, they’re free. And, if their recent outlandish behaviour is anything to go by, they’re still primed for reality TV.

Virtually the first thing that Savannah did on appearing with her father at a post-release press conference on Friday was deny – in a less than coherent fashion – sleazy rumours about how she managed to obtain their freedom.

‘Obviously, the biggest misconception right now is that I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon or something,’ she said.

‘I fought hard and I was exhausted and I begged for meetings. I was never too good to ask. And that’s the thing, people think, “Oh, you’re a celebrity, you’re white, you have money”, that we got an upper hand, and we didn’t. I had to fight and I was relentless and that’s how it happened. Finally, people listened.’

For his part, Todd Chrisley said he felt no remorse as he was ‘innocent’. But he insisted that his spell in prison had opened his eyes to the plight of black prisoners and vowed to expose the ‘injustices that go on there and throughout the Bureau of Prisons’.

Savannah insisted her mother had learned a similar lesson, adding: ‘I know that they just have a heart now. They have a heart for these men, women that are in prison and who they feel like they’ve left behind.’

Sombre words, indeed. First, however, there’s money to be made from their ordeal. The Chrisleys are jumping back into the reality TV world with a new series set to chronicle their legal battle and how their children coped while they were inside.

The new series doesn’t yet have a title but those involved are, at least, sufficiently contrite as to admit – in a press release – that it can’t be the old one as ‘the Chrisleys  don’t know best any more’.