Todd and Julie Chrisley celebrated a rare legal victory on Wednesday after they scored a $1 million settlement from the state of Georgia.
Todd, 54, and Julie — who will be receiving a visit from her children in prison for her 51st birthday — had sued the former Director of Special Investigations for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, Joshua Waites, back in 2019.
They contended in court filings that Waites was ‘specifically targeting’ them with a tax evasion investigation due to their public profile and reality TV fame.
‘We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,’ their attorney, Alex Little of Burr & Forman LLP, said in a statement to People. ‘This settlement is an encouraging sign.’
He added: ‘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 and Julie Chrisley celebrated a rare legal victory on Wednesday after they scored a $1 million settlement from the state of Georgia; seen in 2017
Todd, 54, and Julie, 51, sued the former Director of Special Investigations for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, Joshua Waites, back in 2019. The couple are currently serving federal prison sentences for bank fraud and tax evasion; still from Chrisley Knows Best
However, Little appears to be referring to different governments, as the Chrisleys were cleared of tax evasion charges by the state of Georgia but were later convicted of multiple counts of bank fraud and tax evasion by a federal jury.
Todd was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie was sentenced to seven years behind bars, but both sentences were subsequently shortened in September of last year, and they appear to have been shortened again more recently
As long as nothing else changes, Todd can now expect to be released on September 23, 2032, while Julie will now be leaving prison on August 20, 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate search system.
Michael J. Bowers, the Chrisleys’ former lawyer, who filed their lawsuit in 2019, wrote that Waites’ charges against the couple were ‘a shocking example of how an out-of-control public servant can abuse his office and violate the rights of innocent citizens for reasons that have more to do with securing publicity and money for his office than with enforcing the law,’ according to People.
The lawsuit alleged that Waites ‘began to focus his efforts and desire’ on the Chrisley Knows Best stars, while particularly singling out both Todd and their daughter Lindsie, who is currently estranged from her parents.
Bowers and the Chrisleys claimed that Waites was only targeting Lindsie as a means to get her to share incriminating information about her parents.
That approach didn’t appear to pan out, and the lawsuit alleges that Waites then shared Todd and Julie’s confidential tax records with Lindsie.
‘Ultimately Waites’s efforts failed, but in the process, the Chrisleys were forced to incur substantial personal and financial hardship,’ Bowers wrote in filings.
The Chrisleys’ lawsuit claimed Waites had singled out the stars, and Todd and their estranged daughter Linsdie in particular. They alleged that he sent Lindsie confidential tax info from Todd and Julie to get her to incriminate them
‘We have been saying for months that the criminal case against the Chrisleys was highly unusual and had real problems,’ their attorney said in a statement. ‘This settlement is an encouraging sign’; seen in 2019 in Nashville
After the settlement was announced, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Revenue said that its ‘investigators are fair and impartial,’ but they admitted that revelations from the lawsuit were ‘disappointing,’ according to Page Six; seen in 2018 in Los Angeles
Although Todd and Julie are still facing years behind bars, even with the Georgia charges coming to nothing and the settlement from the state, the couple still have legal avenues to fight their conviction.
In April, their appeal against their federal convictions will be heard by an appeals court in Atlanta.
Following the settlement with the Chrisleys, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Revenue said in a statement that its ‘investigators are fair and impartial.’
However, they admitted that revelations from the Chrisleys’ lawsuit were ‘disappointing,’ according to Page Six.
