Inside Todd and Julie Chrisley's $25 Million Lawsuit Against Former Defense Team After Trump Pardons

Todd and Julie Chrisley are out of prison, back on television and now taking their former defense team to court.

The reality stars, best known for Chrisley Knows Best, have filed a $25 million lawsuit against former attorney Christopher Anulewicz and the law firm Balch & Bingham, accusing them of mishandling the criminal defense that ended with the couple’s 2022 federal fraud convictions.

The Chrisleys were convicted of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States after prosecutors accused them of defrauding banks out of more than $36 million and using the money to support a lavish lifestyle. Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie Chrisley received seven.

President Donald Trump pardoned the couple last year, freeing them from prison and cutting short more than 10 combined years still left on their sentences.

Their new lawsuit claims Anulewicz “had no meaningful criminal defense experience” and took the case because it offered “publicity, and the kind of high-profile notoriety that brings in business.”

The lawsuit focuses on a 2017 Georgia Revenue Department search of the Chrisleys’ warehouse, which the couple says was “illegal.” They allege Anulewicz waited too long to file a motion to “suppress the derivative evidence” obtained from that search.

The consequences, the suit says, were “catastrophic.”

“They served time in federal prison. They were separated from each other and from their children,” the lawsuit says. The complaint notes they lost their TV and endorsement deals, which they valued at more than $25 million in lost income.

“A lawyer with actual criminal defense competence, supervised by a firm that took its professional obligations seriously, would never have let this happen,” the lawsuit states.

“Suing your former defense attorney isn't just an uphill battle; it's a legal decathlon,” said Todd Spodek, managing partner of Spodek Law Group, who is not involved in the case. “Because the Chrisleys secured presidential pardons, they’ve cleared the usual public policy hurdle that blocks convicted felons from suing their counsel, but the remaining burden of proof is still staggering.”

Spodek said the couple must prove a “case-within-a-case” by showing that without the alleged missed deadline, the government’s case would have fallen apart.

The damages claim may be just as complicated.

“Quantifying the loss of liberty is deeply psychological, requiring a jury to put a price tag on the trauma of a federal prison cell and forced family separation. But for reality-TV stars, reputation isn't just an ego metric — it is literal currency,” Spodek said.

“Their legal team will use forensic accountants to chart the exact financial trajectory of killed endorsement deals and canceled television contracts, proving that the attorney's alleged ‘unforced error’ served as an immediate corporate death penalty for a highly lucrative media empire.”