It was a sentence straight out of a reality show – staged, over-the-top, yet shockingly real in its cynicism: “Your parents are going to be free and clean – I hope by tomorrow.” Spoken by Donald Trump, the 47th President of the United States, during a phone call with Savannah Chrisley, daughter of a celebrity couple sentenced to years in prison. The camera was rolling. The internet rejoiced. Democracy remained silent.
Todd and Julie Chrisley, known from the TV show Chrisley Knows Best, were convicted in 2022 of large-scale bank fraud and tax evasion. Over 30 million dollars in fraudulent loans, a life of designer fashion, luxury cars, and mansions – and a mountain of debt that Todd Chrisley simply declared unrecoverable when he filed for bankruptcy. The courts were clear in their judgment. The sentences were harsh: seven years for her, twelve for him, plus nearly 18 million dollars in restitution.
But now comes their salvation – from the very Oval Office that has long since become the stage of a personal regime of clemency. Trump, who sees himself as the victim of a “corrupt, politicized justice system,” uses his power to redeem other “persecuted” figures: reality stars, Republican women, conservative donors. Those who are loyal, those who fit, are pardoned. Those who don’t – are left behind.
The Chrisleys’ pardon fits into a series of arbitrary acts of clemency that have more to do with spectacle than with law: the corrupt sheriff Scott Jenkins, the fraud-convicted Republican politician Michele Fiore, the tax evader Paul Walczak – all of them are now free. Not through appeal, not through new evidence – but through the word of a president who confuses clemency with allegiance.
According to their lawyer, the Chrisleys were “victims of a politically motivated trial.” Their conservative values made them vulnerable. Trump saw what the justice system had ignored. It’s the familiar narrative: blame the “deep state,” the Democratic judge, the Biden DOJ. The crime disappears behind identity – and with it, responsibility.
Savannah Chrisley had already introduced this narrative at the 2024 Republican National Convention. She spoke there as the daughter of political prisoners, as a witness to alleged judicial abuse. A prosecutor had called her family “the Trumps of the South.” What was meant as an insult, she reframed as a badge of honor. Now she wears it with pride – and with the backing of a president who sees himself in this family.
But what does it mean when justice becomes theater? When guilt or innocence is no longer decided in court but in circles of friendship? When the president no longer judges in the name of the people, but in the name of ratings?
Trump needs no jury. He needs only an audience.
He does not forgive – he rewards. And those who are loyal in his world, who make a public pledge, who portray themselves as victims and offer themselves as symbols of his movement, may hope. Clemency is not blind – it is selective. It is not neutral – it is partisan. It is not justice – it is rhetoric.
In a functioning democracy, the pardon would be an instrument of last resort – cautious, rare, justified. Under Trump, it becomes a political currency, a reward for loyalty, the crowning of a narrative that sees guilt only where there is no allegiance.
The Chrisleys will not be the last on this list. They stand as examples of a system in which power perpetuates itself – through storytelling, through outrage, through the conscious reversal of moral categories.
“Trump knows best,” wrote a White House aide after the call. Perhaps that’s even true – in a world where loyalty trumps law, and the convicted become heroes if they shout loudly enough: I am one of you.
The Chrisleys are free again. The justice system remains behind.
And with it, the principle that all are equal before the law.
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