Todd and Julie Chrisley have secured a legal victory in their 2019 lawsuit against a Georgia state tax official.
“We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,” the family’s attorney shared in a statement to People on Wednesday, January 10. “This settlement is an encouraging sign.”
The statement continued, “It’s nearly unprecedented for one arm of the government to pay money to defendants when another arm is fighting to keep them in jail.”
Todd, 54, and Julie, 51 — who are currently serving time in prison for tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy — are receiving a $1 million settlement from the state of Georgia.
In 2019, the couple accused Joshua Waites, former Director of Special Investigations at Georgia’s Department of Revenue, for “abusing the power of his office and violating both federal and state law” in his investigation of the Chrisley Knows Best alums. The Georgia Department of Revenue denied the accusations.
Todd and Julie alleged that Waites had “aggressively” pursued Lindsie Chrisley and tried getting her “to reveal compromising information about her family,” according to court documents obtained by Us Weekly at the time. (Lindsie, 34, is Todd’s daughter from his first marriage. Together, Todd and Julie share kids Chase, 27, Savannah, 26, and Grayson, 17. They adopted granddaughter Chloe in 2016.)
Their lawsuit against Waits was filed days after Todd and Julie settled with the state of Georgia in October 2019. They were accused of owing more than $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016, and under the terms of the settlement, the couple agreed to pay $150,000, according to an Associated Press report at the time.
Despite the settlement of their Georgia case, the couple still faced a federal trial. Todd and Julie were indicted on 12 counts of tax evasion, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy in August 2019. They were eventually found guilty on all counts in June 2022.
Five months later, Todd and Julie received their prison sentences. Todd was sentenced to 12 years in prison, in the FPC Pensacola minimum security facility in Florida. Meanwhile, Julie started her seven-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky in January 2023. They will have to serve 16 months of probation as well.
Us confirmed in September 2023 that Todd will be released on January 22, 2033, which is two years earlier than his initial release date. Julie, for her part, is expected to be released 14-months early on October 19, 2028.
The couple’s attorney told Entertainment Weekly at the time that they’ve been “model inmates” and were eligible for sentence reductions under the First Step Act, which was put into place in December 2018 to reduce the size of prison population.
