ATLANTA — Savannah Chrisley claims that the federal judge who resentenced her mother to 84 months in prison, did so in retaliation over Savannah being so outspoken about her parents’ case.
Julie Chrisley learned her fate once again last week as she was transferred to Atlanta for the hearing by the U.S. Marshal Service.
For the past 20 months, Julie has been serving her seven-year sentence at the federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, after being found guilty of fraud in 2022 along with her husband Todd, and their accountant Peter Tarantino.
Throughout that time, Savannah Chrisley has been critical of the conditions she says her parents have been living in, as well as the legal process itself.
“I truly do believe that this judge, everything that she has done, has been in retaliation,” Savannah said during this week’s episode of her podcast. “It has been in retaliation for us exercising our right to an appeal and being granted, in part, a successful appeal. And then yesterday, the judge showed that this was more than just us exercising our right to an appeal. This was her not liking how outspoken I am and how I’m out here telling the truth about corruption that’s occurring.”
She said it hurt when the judge set Julie’s sentence and felt that she was responsible for the outcome.
“It felt like it was a punch in the gut because to think that I did something that harmed my mother’s ability to be a free woman, that one stung really bad,” Savannah said.
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In June, an appeals court vacated her sentence and then ordered the lower District Court to resentence Julie.
The appeals court also upheld Todd’s conviction, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence in Florida.
Todd and Julie were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud.
Julie Chrisley was also charged with wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
The Chrisleys were initially indicted in August 2019. Prosecutors said the couple submitted fake documents to banks when applying for loans.
Julie Chrisley sent a fake credit report and bank statements showing far more money than they had in their accounts to a California property owner in July 2014 while trying to rent a home.
A few months after they began using the home, in October 2014, they refused to pay rent, causing the owner to have to threaten them with eviction.
The money the Chrisleys received from their reality television show, “Chrisley Knows Best,” went to a company they controlled called 7C’s Productions, but they didn’t declare it as income on federal tax returns, prosecutors said.
The couple failed to file or pay their federal income taxes on time for multiple years.
The family had moved to Tennessee by the time the indictment was filed but the criminal charges stem from when they lived in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
Savannah says, at this point, she has nothing about speaking her mind.
“My mom’s in [prison]. My dad’s in [prison]. What do I have to lose at this point? I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Because all I want to do … I don’t want to be disrespectful to someone, degrade someone, none of those things. So I’m not trying to do that when it comes to this judge, but what I do want to do is tell the truth, and I want to be effective in my truth-telling, and I want my truth-telling to lead to change and moments of growth and rehabilitation.”
Channel 2 Action News first started investigating the Chrisleys in 2017, when we learned that Todd Chrisley had likely evaded paying Georgia state income taxes for several years.
Court documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News showed that by 2018, the Chrisleys owed the state nearly $800,000 in liens.
The couple eventually went to trial and a federal jury found them guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion.
Savannah Chrisley said the family is moving forward with appealing the case for both her parents.
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