Reality TV star Julie Chrisley to appeal resentencing in bank fraud and tax evasion case
Todd and Julie Chrisley exit the federal courthouse in Atlanta during their fraud trial in 2022. (FOX 5)
ATLANTA - Reality TV star Julie Chrisley will be appealing her recent resentencing, which took place on Sept. 25, that rejected her request for a reduced sentence on her conviction for bank fraud and tax evasion.
Chrisley, who rose to fame on the show "Chrisley Knows Best," had sought a shorter sentence "citing her good behavior during her time behind bars and the impact of her absence on her children.
Julie and her husband, Todd Chrisley, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans and for tax evasion. The Chrisleys were accused of hiding their earnings to evade taxes. Todd Chrisley is serving a 12-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the couple’s convictions in June but found a legal error in the way the trial judge calculated Julie Chrisley’s sentence, leading to the resentencing hearing. The appellate court ruled that she should not have been held responsible for the entire fraud scheme.
Chrisley’s attorney, Alex Little, urged the judge to reduce her sentence to no more than five years, arguing that she was a minor player in the crimes and highlighting her good behavior during her 20 months in prison. Little noted that she had earned over 70 certificates and described her involvement as "dramatic mistakes." He also pointed to the struggles of Chrisley’s two youngest children in coping with their mother’s absence.
However, federal prosecutor Annalise Peters pressed for the full seven-year sentence to be reinstated, arguing that Julie Chrisley was a "core part" of the scheme and had shown no remorse or acknowledgment of her wrongdoing. "Chrisley’s good behavior in prison does not cancel out an ‘11-year journey of fraud after fraud after fraud,’" Peters told the court.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross, who presided over the case, declined to reduce the sentence. While she expressed sympathy for the Chrisley children, she emphasized that many people she sends to prison have children and fewer resources than the Chrisley family. "It saddens me every time I see children going through that," Ross said, adding, "I am not the one who made the choices to put the children in that situation."
Outside the courthouse, Chrisley’s daughter, Savannah, who attended the hearing along with her brother Chase, told reporters that she believes the prosecution and sentencing of her parents were politically motivated. "That’s what you get with an Obama-appointed judge," Savannah said, referring to Judge Ross, who was appointed to the bench in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama.
Julie Chrisley, 51, was returned to the federal facility in Lexington, Kentucky. Todd Chrisley, 56, has a release date of September 2032. The couple was initially ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution, but Ross said that the amount now stands at $4.7 million.