Todd Chrisley Claims Fellow Inmate Tried to Blackmail Daughter Savannah for '$2,600 a Month' for Photo of Him in Prison
Todd Chrisley spoke out for the first about his experience behind bars.
The Chrisley Knows Best patriarch, 54, sat down for an interview with his lawyer, Brian Entin, for Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show, Cuomo, after surrendering to his now 10-year sentence for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud.
"There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter, asking for $2,600 a month for my protection," Chrisley shockingly admitted about a fellow inmate trying to blackmail daughter Savannah Chrisley for money.
While the reality star's experiences have been traumatic, his environment has been equally as scary. "It is so disgustingly filthy," he explained.
"The only food that I eat is what I make that I buy from the commissary," the USA star added of his diet. "The food is literally, I'm not exaggerating this…the food is dated, it's out of date, at minimum a year. It's a year past expiration."
Todd alleged the prison guards have been "literally starving these men to death here. These men are getting … I don't know that they're getting 1,000 calories a day."
Tensions between the television star and the staff at the Pensacola, Fla., facility have come to the point where Todd heard one of the wardens "trying to break me by cutting down what you can buy in commissary."
"So, before she came here, you could buy 12 packs of tuna a week and she cut it down to six and then it went from six to three. She had not given a reason," he noted. "When I asked her about it, she said, 'Commissary is a privilege, not a right.'"
- Todd Chrisley's Safety Not 'Guaranteed' as Reality Star Faces 'Retaliation' in Prison, Daughter Savannah Claims
- Savannah Chrisley Claims Prison Guards Are Targeting Father Todd After She's Spoken Out About His 'Terrible' Living Conditions
- Todd Chrisley Is 'in Fear for His Life' in Prison: 'The Other Inmates Are Calling Him a Squealer'
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Todd has been wary of feeding himself any food prepared at the jail, as it's not been stored in a clean space. "You've got rats, you've got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is," he said.
"They just covered it up with plastic and tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling that dropped down on top of the food," he added.
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As for how he and his wife, Julie Chrisley — who has been spending her five-year sentence in Lexington, Ky. — have been communicating, Todd revealed their communication is heavily monitored. "It's devastating," he explained.
"She and I email four or five times a day, but they will hold my emails and hold them on her end as well as a way of punishment to us because of what Savannah is doing," he said of the former beauty queen speaking out. "So if I write her an email today, if I write her three or four, if I work out and then go to the computer and send all my kids an email every morning — their current emails just say, 'I love you, just stay strong, God's got us' — whatever we say, and anyone else's emails will go through within two hours. You may not get mine for five days later."