After Trump won 2024 presidential election, Savannah Chrisley appealed his office to pardon ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ stars Todd and Julie Chrisley.
Trump pardons reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
President Trump called Savannah Chrisley from the Oval Office in the White House to tell her he wanted to pardon her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley.
- Brittish Williams appeared on VH1’s hit reality TV show “Basketball Wives.”
- Jerry Harris became famous from the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.” He is serving time at the same prison that held reality star Julie Chrisley.
- “According to Chrisley” star Todd Chrisley was serving time at FPC Pensacola in Florida.
For some reality stars, life was not at all like a TV show when they found themselves in legal trouble.
From “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” Jen Shah’s involvement in a telemarketing scheme, to “Chrisley Knows Best” stars sentenced for tax evasion and bank fraud, TV personalities have gone from TV screens to behind bars.
In at least one case, the plea for their release has reached the highest office in the land − with significant results: Savannah Chrisley, daughter of embattled reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, appealed to President Donald Trump for their pardon. On May 27, 2025, the Chrisleys received their wish.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were released from prison May 28, 2025.
In another case, a reality star convicted of fraud charges will be released from prison a little early − right around the 2025 holiday season, though the original release date was for two years later.
Here’s a list of reality stars who are serving time in prison, the crimes in which they were convicted and when they will presumably be released.
Trump pardons Todd and Julie Chrisley from ‘Chrisley Knows Best.’ When did Julie and Todd Chrisley get released from prison?
President Donald Trump said he plans to pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley of “Chrisley Knows Best” fame, who were convicted for tax evasion and fraud.
“It’s a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean,” Trump told the couple’s daughter, reality TV star Savannah Chrisley, on May 27, 2025.
The Chrisleys, who were depicted on their USA Network show as real estate tycoons in the South, were found guilty in June 2022 of conspiring to defraud community banks in Atlanta out of more than $36 million in fraudulent loans, defraud the IRS and commit tax evasion. Julie Chrisley was additionally convicted of obstruction of justice and wire fraud.
Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie Chrisley received a seven-year sentence. Their show ended when they began their respective sentences in January 2023.
Savannah Chrisley, 27, who has been advocating for her parents’ release in interviews, on her podcast and even onstage at the 2024 Republican National Convention, said she was “freaking out” in a video posted to Instagram.
Julie Chrisley, 52, served her prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. She had a release date of Jan. 8, 2028, according to a Bureau of Prisons record check.
Her husband Todd Chrisley served time at FPC Pensacola, described on its site as a “minimum security federal prison camp.” Before the Trump pardon, his release would have been April 7, 2032, more than two years earlier than his original 12-year sentence, according to a Bureau of Prisons record check.
Brittish Williams of VH1’s ‘Basketball Wives’
On Oct. 24, 2023, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey sentenced former “Basketball Wives” star Brittish Cierrah Williams to four years in prison for committing $564,000 worth of frauds, including tax frauds, bank fraud, insurance fraud and three separate pandemic fraud schemes, according to a release from the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri.
In May 2023, Williams, then 33 and a radio personality in St. Louis, pleaded guilty to 15 felonies. Williams also will be on supervised release for five years after serving time, and Autrey ordered her to pay $564,069 in restitution.
The 35-year-old former “Basketball Wives” star is an inmate of FCI Waseca, “a low security federal correctional institution” in Minnesota, with a release date of Dec. 24, 2025, or Christmas Eve, according to a May 29, 2025, BOP records check. That’s nearly two years earlier than had been listed by federal officials in 2024.
Josh Duggar of TLC Network’s ’19 Kids and Counting’
Josh Duggar rose to fame in TLC’s hit show “19 Kids and Counting.” In May 2022, the eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar was sentenced to 12 years in prison for downloading and possessing child pornography.
A father of seven himself, Josh Duggar was found guilty in December 2021. According to a USA TODAY story, federal authorities said they began investigating the reality TV star after a Little Rock, Arkansas, police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
“19 Kids and Counting” chronicled the lives of the Duggars. The series was canceled in 2015 following revelations that Josh Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter when he was a young teen. At that time, he admitted to a porn addiction and cheating on his wife, and apologized.
The series inspired a TLC spinoff, “Counting On,” from the perspective of Josh Duggar’s sisters and their young families, but that show was canceled in June 2021 following Josh Duggar’s arrest.
A May 29, 2025, Bureau of Prisons check online shows Josh Duggar, 37, will be released Oct. 2, 2032. He is imprisoned at FCI Seagoville in Texas.
Jerry Harris of Netflix show ‘Cheer’
In 2020, Jerry Harris gained fame for the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.” That same year, the competitive cheerleading coach was featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and attended Vanity Fair’s Oscar party.
In September 2020, authorities charged Harris with producing child pornography. According to USA TODAY, federal court records show Harris admitted he solicited and received explicit messages on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 individuals he knew were minors; had sex with a 15-year-old boy at a cheerleading competition in 2019; and paid a 17-year-old money in exchange for nude photos.
Season two of the hit Netflix show addressed Harris’ downfall.
Harris pleaded guilty in February 2022. In July 2022, Harris was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for soliciting sex from minors and pressuring young boys to send him nude photos and videos.
Like “Chrisley Knows Best” star Julie Chrisley, Jerry Harris reported to FMC Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky, for his prison sentence. A May 29, 2025, record check shows the 25-year-old Jeremiah Harris has a release date of Jan. 18, 2031.
Jen Shah of Bravo’s ‘Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’
In January 2024, Jen Shah, one of the stars of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” on Bravo, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with telemarketing.
Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled the Bravo celebrity would spend 78 months behind bars, despite prosecutors’ suggested sentence of 120 months, for fraud conspiracy after she admitted to participating in a nationwide telemarketing scheme. That’s in addition to five years of supervision after her release. Shah also agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and to pay $9.5 million in restitution as part of her plea agreement.
Shah was ordered to begin her sentence Feb. 17, 2024.
Her arrest was partially captured by Bravo’s cameras.
The 50-year-old reality TV star is serving time at FPC Bryan in Texas, a “minimum security federal prison camp,” with a release date of Sept. 19, 2026, according to a May29, 2025, Federal Bureau of Prisons records check.
Charles ‘Todd’ Hill of HGTV’s ‘Flip It to Win It’
On April 16, 2024, former HGTV star Charles “Todd” Hill of Los Gatos, California, was remanded and sentenced to four years in jail. Hill also was ordered to pay back close to $10 million for committing real estate and financial fraud against 11 victims, according to a news release from the County of Santa Clara (California) Office of the District Attorney.
The “Flip It to Win It” star on the home and garden television network was convicted in 2023 of multiple fraud schemes. In “Flip It to Win It,” Hill would buy dilapidated homes, fix them up and sell them for a profit. Instead, “Hill spent millions on overbudget remodels, laundered profits and pocketed millions in fraudulently obtained money,” the news release states.
Hill was indicted in November 2019, then convicted by plea on Sept. 27, 2023, of grand theft against all victims. He was ordered to pay back $9,402,678 in restitution and serve 10 years on probation.
A May 29, 2025, records check shows the 59-year-old Charles Hill will be released from FCI Oakdale on March 22, 2037.
Contributing: Amy Haneline, Maria Puente, Elise Brisco, Marisa Kwiatkowski and Tricia L. Nadolny, USA TODAY
Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper.
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