Savannah Chrisley, daughter of reality television star Todd Chrisley, speaks outside the Federal Prison Camp, on May 28, 2025, in Pensacola, Florida. | Photo Credit: AP

President Donald Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday (May 28, 2025), awarding them to a former New York congressman, a Connecticut governor, a rapper known as “NBA YoungBoy”, a labour union leader and a onetime Army officer who flaunted safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His actions mixed Mr Trump’s willingness to pardon high-profile Republicans and other supporters, donors and friends with the influence of Alice Marie Johnson, whom Mr Trump recently named his pardon czar after he offered a pardon to her in 2020.

Ms Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation. Mr Trump commuted her life sentence in 2018 at the urging of celebrity Kim Kardashian West, allowing for Ms Johnson’s early release.

Ms Johnson then served as the featured speaker on the final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention, and Mr Trump subsequently pardoned her before more recently naming her as his point person for pardons.

Among those receiving the latest round of Mr Trump pardons was Louisiana rap artist NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden and whose stage moniker stands for “Never Broke Again”.

In 2024, he was sentenced to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a convicted felon. Mr Gaulden also pleaded guilty to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring in Utah.

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Mr Gaulden’s and the other pardons were confirmed Wednesday (May 28, 2025) evening by two White House officials who spoke only on background to detail actions that had not yet been formally made public.

In a statement posted online, Mr Gaulden said, “I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father, and as an artist.”

He said this “opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for and I am fully prepared to step into this,” and thanked Ms Johnson.

Mr Trump has spent the week issuing high-profile pardons. Video released by a White House aide showed Ms Johnson in the Oval Office on Tuesday (May 27, 2025), as Mr Trump called their daughter to say he was pardoning TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley of the reality show “Chrisley Knows Best.”

Their show spotlighted the family’s extravagant lifestyle but the couple was convicted of conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta area out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents. Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, addressed the Republican convention last summer and had long said her parents were treated unfairly.

Also Wednesday (May 28, 2025), Mr Trump commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader serving a life sentence. Hoover was first imprisoned in connection with a murder in 1973, and was convicted of running a criminal enterprise in 1998 but later renounced his criminal past and petitioned for a reduced sentence.

And the President pardoned James Callahan, a New York union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to report $3,15,000 in gifts from an advertising firm and was about to be sentenced.

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The President also pardoned former Connecticut Governor John Rowland, a Republican who served from 1995 to 2004 and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for charges related to concealing his involvement in two federal election campaigns.

He further pardoned Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after being convicted of tax fraud. Grimm won reelection in 2014 despite being under indictment for underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant that he ran.

Grimm eventually resigned after pleading guilty and serving eight months in prison. Last year, Grimm was paralysed from the chest down when he was thrown off a horse during a polo tournament.

Yet another Trump pardon was issued for Army Lt. Mark Bradshaw, who was convicted in 2022 of reporting to work without undergoing a COVID-19 test.

What to know about reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley

Reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley are best known for the long-running TV series “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their family and luxurious lifestyle — which prosecutors said was boosted by bank fraud and hiding earnings from tax authorities.

The Chrisleys were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to defraud banks in the Atlanta area out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents.

Here are some things to know about the Chrisleys:

• “Chrisley Knows Best,” which ran from 2014 to 2023, chronicled the extravagant exploits of the boisterous, tightly knit family of the couple and their five children, from high-end cars to luxury vacations to stunning mansions. It was recorded in the Atlanta area at first and then in Nashville.
• In 2019 the show spawned the spinoff “Growing Up Chrisley,” which featured the couple’s children Chase and Savannah living in Los Angeles.
• The couple’s 2022 trial started just after E! announced that it was moving forward with a new dating series, “Love Limo,” hosted by Todd Chrisley. It also came soon after USA announced the renewal of “Chrisley Knows Best” for a 10th season, while its spinoff was renewed by E! for a fourth season.
• The Chrisleys were found guilty in 2022 in Atlanta on the fraud and tax charges. Until this Wednesday (May 28, 2025) they still had years left on their sentences: Julie Chrisley was expected to be released in 2028, and Todd Chrisley in 2032.
• At trial prosecutors detailed a laundry list of offenses that started before they became famous.
• The Chrisleys and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks to obtain fraudulent loans and then used new loans to pay off the old ones, prosecutors said. The couple was accused of spending lavishly on cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel.
• Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans, according to prosecutors. Meanwhile Julie Chrisley created false financial documents to rent a home in Los Angeles, they said, but then the couple did not pay rent on it.
• Once they were starring in the reality show, they operated a company that collected their income from the series and other ventures and kept the corporate bank accounts in Julie Chrisley’s name to avoid collection of half a million dollars in back taxes that Todd Chrisley owed, prosecutors said.
• When the IRS asked for information on the accounts, they transferred ownership to Todd Chrisley’s mother to try to hide his income further, according to authorities.
• Prosecutors also accused the couple of not filing or paying taxes for several years
• The Chrisleys’ lawyers argued that an IRS officer gave false testimony at trial and that prosecutors lacked evidence to support convictions.
• A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their convictions last year.
• Savannah Chrisley has been a staunch Trump supporter and endorsed his candidacy while also speaking about her parents in a speech at the Republican National Convention last summer.
• “My family was persecuted by rogue prosecutors and Fulton County due to our public profile ... and conservative beliefs,” she said at the time.
• She has called the case against her parents politically motivated, though they were indicted in 2019 under a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, Byung J. “BJay” Pak.
• In a social media post Wednesday (May 28, 2025), she praised U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, the Justice Department lawyer assigned to advise Mr Trump on pardons and commutations.
• “Your leadership is already changing countless lives — including mine,” she said on the social platform X. “Thank you for standing boldly for truth, for justice, and for reuniting families like mine.”
• Todd Chrisley was released from a minimum security prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, in the evening, according to Shannen Sharpe, a spokesperson for his attorney, and Julie Chrisley left a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, Sharpe said.
• As Savannah Chrisley waited to meet her father at his prison, she said the family was planning to do a lot of catching up.
• “We’re going to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, Christmases, all the things,” she said, “because we’re going to make up for the lost time.”
• Mr Trump said the celebrity couple had been “given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing”.
• The Constitution grants broad pardon powers to presidents, and their clemency actions cannot be undone by courts or other officials.