By Dakin Andone, Mark Morales, Bill Kirkos, Danya Gainor

(CNN) — The reality show couple Todd and Julie Chrisley were released from federal custody on Wednesday after they were pardoned by President Donald Trump following their 2022 convictions for fraud and tax crimes.

Todd Chrisley was serving a 12-year prison sentence in Pensacola, while Julie Chrisley had been sentenced to seven years at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky. The couple is now headed home to Nashville, a law firm representing the Chrisleys told CNN Wednesday.

The Chrisleys’ release was part of a succession of contentious new pardons by Trump, including former Republican New York congressman Michael Grimm, who served seven months for tax evasion and Connecticut’s former Republican Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted of campaign-related federal crimes.

The “Chrisley Knows Best” couple was sentenced for conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million and was also found guilty of several tax crimes, including attempting to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Both had maintained their innocence and were in the process of appealing their convictions when their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, received a call from the president on Tuesday, informing her that her parents would receive full pardons.

“Some of these decisions about pardons aren’t necessarily about guilt and innocence: they’re about how the process works, or whether it should work this way,” Alex Little, an attorney for the Chrisleys, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday night after their release. “I think ultimately, the White House was convinced it didn’t work the way it should have.”

In an unsuccessful appeal last year, the Chrisleys’ attorneys argued that the prosecution knowingly allowed for false testimony against the couple and that they had insufficient evidence to convict them, the Associated Press reported. Judges at the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Chrisleys’ conviction, but ordered that Julie Chrisley’s case be sent back to a lower court to be resentenced due to a calculation error.

“The pardon process is here to say we don’t think the end result was the correct one, and that’s what the president did today,” Little said.

Speaking to reporters before the couple’s release, Savannah Chrisley said she had been fighting for her parents.

“I’ve had people say, ‘I wonder what she had to do to get this pardon.’ I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to do anything other than stand firm in my beliefs and my convictions and fight for my parents and fight for what was right,” she said. “And not only am I fighting for my parents, I’m literally fighting for every single man that’s being left behind here today. There are so many here that deserve a second chance.”

Savannah Chrisley spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July. She also campaigned for Trump as part of “Team Trump’s Women Tour” and recently appeared on Lara Trump’s Fox News program to discuss her parents’ plight.

Speaking at the White House Wednesday, the president weighed in on even more potential pardons, saying he was “going to look at it,” when asked if he planned to pardon the men convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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