Locked In with Ian Bick - Todd Chrisley: How I Survived Prison

Episode Date: January 18, 2026

Todd Chrisley opens up to Ian Bick about his upbringing, building a successful business, and raising his children while living in the public eye. He breaks down how his legal troubles began, what it was like going to trial, and the moment he was sentenced to prison. Todd shares how he survived behind bars, the lessons prison forced him to learn, and stories from inside that changed his perspective on life and family. He also reflects on the experience of being pardoned, rebuilding after incarceration, and what the entire journey taught him about accountability, resilience, and starting over. _____________________________________________ #ToddChrisley #PrisonStory #TrueCrime #LifeAfterPrison #SurvivingPrison #RealStories #CelebrityInterview #youtubepodcast _____________________________________________ Thank you to GOLD DROP SELTZERS, FACTOR & PRIZEPICKS for sponsoring this episode: GOLD DROP SELTZERS: Head to https://www.thedryoak.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout for 10% off your order. FACTOR: Head to https://factormeals.com/lockedin50off and use code lockedin50off to get 50% off your first Factor box PLUS free breakfast for 1 year. Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor. PRIZEPICKS: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/IANBICK and use code IANBICK and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! _____________________________________________ Connect with Todd Chrisley: https://www.instagram.com/toddchrisley/?hl=en _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 Todd Chrisley Opens Up About Prison 00:58 Family Bonding, Gym Videos, and Staying Connected 03:00 Chase Chrisley’s Sobriety and New Business 05:51 Todd’s Childhood, Discipline, and Work Ethic 09:43 Raising a Family and Chrisley Household Dynamics 12:12 Big Dreams and Leaving Home for Los Angeles 16:11 Early Adulthood, Marriage, and Real Estate Beginnings 19:02 Entrepreneurship and Building a Business Empire 22:24 Creating a Reality TV Show 26:20 The Rise of Chrisley Knows Best 33:00 When Legal Troubles Began 36:39 Fraud Allegations, Investigations, and Betrayal 41:09 Tax Charges, Federal Prosecution, and Trial 49:09 Conviction, Sentencing, and Appeals Process 55:14 Preparing for Prison and Family Transition 01:00:34 Entering Prison: First Days and Daily Routine 01:09:57 Prison Staff, Corruption, and Surviving Inside 01:18:13 Staying Connected to Family While Incarcerated 01:23:19 Finding Out About the Pardon 01:27:01 Release Day: Walking Out of Prison 01:34:57 Lessons Learned and Systemic Failures 01:41:02 Final Reflections and Gratitude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. By the time that I left, I had nine staff members that were being paid to bring my food in. They hid my cell phones. How would you have described yourself in your teenage years, young Todd? Hot, hung, and hungry. Tell us about the day you find out that there could be a potential investigation into you. I am very opinionated. I say what's on my mind.

How did you feel when you got sentenced to prison? My experience is way different than yowers and way different than so many other people. What was your favorite meal in there to eat? We had the worst warden. This ratchet. In this episode, Todd Crisley walks through his life in order from his upbringing and building a successful business to raising his kids in the public eye. He explains how his legal troubles began, what led to his arrest, going to trial, and being sent to prison. Todd shares what it took to survive behind bars, stories from inside, and how everything changed after being pardoned.

Todd Crisley, welcome to Lockton. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this today. It's my pleasure, my friend. It's my pleasure. And I got to say I love the gym videos. I know you got some hate on it, but I love them. I watch them religiously. You know, the gym videos started out as, you know, Chase.

You've done an interview with Chase. Yeah. When I came home, Chase was not in his best position in life and was drinking way too much, had lost so much weight. And he and I had to come to Jesus meeting that this is not acceptable. We're not doing this. the party is over. And so we started working out.

And it was really just to show him so that he could see the change that was happening with him. And then Savannah, who gets so salty, if I do anything, they all do. All of my kids get so salty. If I went to lunch with this one on Monday, well, I wanted to go on Monday. Then let's all go together. No, never mind. You've already made your decision today. And that's the shit that they give me. And so with the videos, Savannah literally tries to out us, as if I need to be outed,

tries to out us about and shame us for the videos. And then she sends me this thing that was on Instagram and it said that if you post workout videos more than this number, there is some psychological issues. and so after that I'm like, I'm going to show her psychological issues. We're posting a damn video every day going forward. So the videos have gotten a lot of, it's gotten great reviews from so many people and so many companies reaching out for endorsements and things like that. I've got so much creatine in my house now from people sending me stuff that I'm not even taking.

But I enjoy that time with him. It is a bonding time that he and I get to hang. have as a father and a son. Chase has one of the most amazing personalities and he's funny. Chase is my most gifted child on television. He has that. Those are his moments when the cameras are on. And to be able to see him coming back to where he was is a blessing as a parent. And speaking of Chase, these are his shelters right here too? And are you, are you a part of this too, right? I am. They're so good. They're, you know, it's really, it's really Chase and his two partners.

and they came to me and ask for some advice is all they asked for. They already had done everything. So I didn't have a part in the development of the product. That all belongs to Chase and Jonathan and Jonathan. But I did give them some advice on where they were falling short in marketing and getting the product out there to where it's consumed by more than just one location. and now it's doing very well. But this came about because Chase has a problem with alcohol.

And now that he's not drinking and he's sober, this was what he wanted to do because he felt like that he drank socially. And when he went out, he had an anxiety if he didn't have something in his hand. And so that's where this originated from. And I'm going to tell you, everyone knows I hate water. I grew up. My mother would take us for Pete. if I did well on my spelling bee it should always make us order water and I always felt like that was poor and

So I didn't I did not want to be poor So although I have every water Ian that you could ever want in my home in my beverage fridge I'm not consuming it so I'm actually working for the environment I'm not consuming all the water But this drink here this the the the clinton Lemon time is my favorite. And it is the one that I drink and it's good. And I love the fact that it has that the contents of it,

I was talking to a friend of mine in Dallas yesterday. And the contents of it is so much better for you than picking up a can of soda, which I love soda. I love Coke. And am I going to turn in my Coke for the cell? No, I'm still drinking. But this is an amazing drink. Yeah, it's great.

I quit drinking myself too. months ago. I didn't have a problem, but just I didn't want it to affect because my job is my mind and being able to conduct interviews. So I quit. I feel better than ever. And now I have a nice alternative to a site. Right. And you know, a ton of my friends drank, a ton of my friends drink. And they love to go out to dinner with us or whatever because they say that I hold them accountable. Not that I'm saying anything to them, but they're ordering a drink and I'm ordering an iced tea. Julie's ordering sweet tea. And they say we shame them in a private way that we don't even know we're doing.

So then they're like, okay, we're just going to have two because we're going with the Crisley's. But, you know, I have never, I've never drank. I've never had a drop of alcohol. I've never smoked a cigarette, tried marijuana, all the shit that y'all's group does, I've never done. And growing up, you know, I never had a problem with an erection. I never had a problem with low testosterone. Y'all's group, y'all can barely keep it up when the damn wind blow. But for me, I never had any of that because I never did any of that.

And I had my physical done when I came back from my extended vacation. It was a busted-ass vacation too. And all my blood work was perfect. My testosterone level was 739, which he says was an amazing number for someone that was 56 years old because I was 56 when I had it done. um so it's i just feel like that i don't want to put anything in my body that god did not intend for it to to be there and god did not intend for us to be drunk and swearing our words and not being able to show up on our job and give 100% um and your body will tell you your body will respond

to you based off of what you put in it and so chase clearly, you know, he was drinking way too much. And now my son is back and I'm grateful to God for that. Where'd you grow up, Todd? I grew up in South Carolina and in a little small rural town. I think there was 1,700 people in the town that I grew up in, 300 people in my graduating class. Were you raised by both parents? Both parents, both my mom and dad. My parents worked in a textile Malfactory their entire life. They worked 12 and 14 hours a day. My brother is 14 much younger than me. And then my mother adopted her brother's daughter when she was three years old. And so I took care of my brother and my cousin from the time that we got her while my parents,

they went to work at 7 o'clock at night and they got home, they got off at 7 the next morning. So I got them up every morning, got them dressed, made sure the beds were made in the house, made sure my mom and dad's coffee was in their cup. And the newspaper was at the end of the table and I locked to the door and I walked them up to the bus stop. We got on bus number 14, which I later drove when I was a senior in high school. And that was my life. What was the most important value of your parents instilled in you as a kid? Working. Working.

My parents' work ethic was beyond any that I've ever been. around or sing. And my mother always taught us, my mother was a very strong force in our lives. And my mother taught us that you're to be kind, you're to be generous, you're to be respectful. And those were things that were non-negotiables in our home. Do you think that's a misconception about you that you're not a hard worker? I think the public looks at certain celebrities and thinks that that's handed to them. I don't know. That's the, I would love for that to be the misconception that's out there. It's one of them, you know.

I think that, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that I'm not a hard worker. Because if you do your background check, you know I didn't come from money. I've made what we have. And I think that, I think the biggest misconception would be, I am very opinionated. I say what's on my mind. but it's never out of a way I never want it to be

received in a negative manner it does sometimes come across that way but when I say to you Ian stop with the fuckery I'm not about that just ask me what you want to ask me that's not me saying to you that you're doing something wrong that's just me saying come on let's speed it up

let's get this done so I think that probably the biggest misconception about men is that I'm very aloof and that I'm not approachable. I think that's probably the biggest misconception. How would you have described yourself in your teenage years, young Todd? Hot, hung, and hungry. You just say hung?

Yeah. Does that mean what I think it means? Yeah, it does. I see why you got the reputation from Chase that you do. It's interesting talking to Chase and then talking to you because that same value of instilling hard work is exactly how he described. described you and his earliest memory of you is that when he... Bonjour, compadre.

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your corner. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. VALU-27. While supplies last, selection varies by Location. See associate or Lowe's dot com for details. He was a kid. You know, my kids grew up knowing that I worked every day and they knew that their mother was going to, we kept them in a routine. And their routine was that they went to school every morning. Julie got them up at 6.30. She had their breakfast ready.

They put their uniforms on. She made sure they were all dressed and good to go out the door. She got them in the car, took them to school. she came home. She put her dinner on for that night. And although we did have domestic help, Julie handled our children. Our children have never been babysat by anyone other than my mom and dad are her parents. So we've never had a nanny. We've never had a babysitter. Our kids were always with us. So my kids grew up knowing that there was going to be a hard work ethic. And even though we had we had full staff in our home, the house was

30,000 square feet. My kids had to clean their room. They had to bring their laundry to their laundry room, and they had to stand there while Lydia was doing that laundry and fold it and learn to put it away and learn how to do their laundry. So my kids can do, they can run their own homes, even if they didn't have help. What was your career aspirations as a teenager while you're in high school? What were you thinking of getting into?

I just knew as a teenager that where I was, you. was was not where I belonged. And I think that is so reminiscent of so many young kids in the world today and where they grow up, not everyone feels like that just because they grew up there, that that's where they belong. And I never felt like I belonged there. I had great friends in school. I'm still friends with everyone that I went to school with.

I was talking to one when I pulled up here today. Um, those are my real friends. You know, the people that I went to school with that we rode the bus with that we, you know, went to school dances with and football games. And we all had about the same thing in that little town that we grew up in. Um, I didn't have a lot of pressure on me to, like a lot of kids today, you got to have this shoe or whatever. We all kind of, it was rebox, you know. And, um, so I think that my, um, so I think that my, you know, dream was just I had to get out of there. You know, I grew up watching shows, which you will probably not even know any of them, but I grew up watching shows like Dynasty and Dallas and Falconcrest and Nights Landing. And those shows became aspirational to me. They, it was my escape from where I was there to a life that I wanted to be a part of that was on television. So television was a great escaped for me back then. Did I ever think that I was going to be on television?

I think that there were moments in my life to where I felt like I was Brad Pitt before Brad Pitt knew he was Brad Pitt. But I just knew that I wanted to be out of there. And so I left at 18. Where'd you go? California. Oh, right to California. To go right into the film industry?

When I left, my parents had gone on. a cruise. And back then, when you'd get your credit card statement, it just had your credit card statement, your credit card number on the top of the statement. So I called Delta Airlines and used my mother's Discover credit card number from her billing statement and bought me a one-way ticket to Los Angeles because my cousin was married to L. El Zado that played for the Raiders. And I felt like if I can just get out of here, I don't care what I have to do, I'm going to make it. in LA. And so I went there and she picked me up from the airport and her jag and she had a phone that was hooked into the car that, you know, you had a cord on it. I'd never seen anything like

that except on Dynasty. And I remember getting off that plane and feeling like the whole world had been lifted off my shoulders. Not that I had a bad childhood, but I had kept so much stress in my life as a child. And it felt like I could breathe for the first time. And when I got in the car, a song was playing on the radio. It was by Michael McDonald and Patty LaBelle called On My Own. And I felt like I just looked up at the sky and I thought, I hear you God. And I ended up getting a job at the Cheesecake Factory in, which was the original Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Ray on Admiral Way. And I ended up meeting an older woman.

Yes, I've been a slut. I ended up meeting an older woman that was 36 and I was 18. And she and I became really good friends. Just friends. However you want to classify. And I ended up seeing her for quite some time until one night I was watching the Academy Awards. And I saw her walk the red carpet with her husband, who was a major producer. And I never knew she was married.

And I felt so ashamed because it went back to my mother saying, do unto others as you would have done to you. And I felt so ashamed over what I was doing. And I didn't see her anymore. I ended up getting a job at Banana Republic in Santa Monica. and my first celebrity client was Willie Nelson, who was getting ready to leave to go on some safari or something. So I addressed him.

And I had a good time when I was in L.A. But I flew home for an extended trip to see my parents. And I had a hard peter has no conscience. So I ended up getting this girl pregnant. with my oldest child and I went back to LA not knowing and then she calls and says that she's pregnant six or eight weeks later and I ended up coming home because my mother shamed me today and basically said you will marry her or we will cut off any support that we give you. So I married her, had my first child, then 14 months later had my second child.

As I said, a heart peter has no conscience. If it's laying there, you're going to do it. And I did it. And I have my two oldest children from that marriage, which was true. I don't consider that a marriage. The only marriage I've ever considered being in is to my wife, Julie. We've been together for 30 years. The first one wasn't even a test trial.

It was just a nightmare. there. And I divorced her and then met Julie, I think it was about a year or so later. Where were you at with your career and success in life when you met Julie? Oh, when I met Julie, I'd gone through that divorce and I had nothing because my divorce had cost me $800,000. And that was in 19, that would have been in 1994. I wasn't even born yet. Oh, eat assy. But so that cost me 800,000 in legal fees.

And but I got sole custody of my two children. And then I met Julie, so I was starting over. So everything that Julie and I have today, we have made together. So you had some success in that first marriage then? Yeah, and real estate. Okay. Real estate. Why real estate?

Why did you get into that? It was the thing that I could control. It was the thing that didn't talk back. I could dress a house however I wanted it to look and thank God the way that the decisions that I made in real estate people loved so if I bought a home and I redid that home or I built a home the selections that I made people loved and I didn't have I started out Ian with one house a renovation and I did that one house and it went out in multiple offers my first time and in this little town in Anderson South Carolina where I I was doing this, word got around that you need to try to get your hand on the house that Todd Chrissly is doing because everything is going to be perfect. And God was good to me because that word traveled and it was all around the upstate of South Carolina. And it went from Anderson to Greenville to South Carolina, to Simpsonville to Gaffney. And I built a very lucrative business

out of that. Where does your entrepreneurial sense come from? Out of necessity. When you don't come from money. And you longed to have it. You sit there and you figure out ways to, okay, how am I going to do this? What is the talent that I have that God has given me that I need to nurture and feed in order for it to be able to generate an income from me and my family? You want to eat better, but you have zero time and zero energy to make it happen. For me, there was a point where I realized I wasn't failing at eating healthy. I was failing at having three extra hours every night to cook, clean, and plan. That's where Factor came in. They don't ask you to meal prep or follow recipes. They just remove the entire problem. Two minutes, real food,

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not some unrealistic plan. They've got over a very important. 100 rotating meals every week, high protein, calorie smart, Mediterranean, GLP1 support, ready to eat salads, and even a new muscle pro collection for strength and recovery. You just pick what matches your goals, whether that's eating cleaner, getting more protein, or managing calories. And the best part, it's always fresh, never frozen, ready in two minutes, no prep, no cleanup, no mental load. It's not motivation to eat better.

it's eliminating the reason you don't. I use this and you should too. Head to factoramills.com slash locked in 50 off and use code locked in 50 off to get 50% off your first factor box plus free breakfast for one year. Offer only valid for new factor customers with code in qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor. So do you think that's always within someone and it just has the fire has to get started in it? I do. I do. And I think that so many kids your age and my children's age, my kids were never allowed to, they didn't have a lot of time to figure it out because they were on television from the time they were 15, Savannah 14, Grayson, he was three, Chloe, since she's from birth.

But my kids never had a whole lot of time to figure it out. It was, this is what you're going to do. and I gave them that path. Now, Savannah has taken her own path, which is I'm so grateful and blessed, but she came from that strong work ethic that she got from me and her mother that I got from my parents. And she's been raised,

all of my kids have been raised around my mother every day of their life, and my mother is 81 years old, and she still goes wherever she wants to go. She drives herself to the casino. the guy that we had to drive her, she pissed him off because she would leave and not tell him where she was going. And, you know, I've got to run up here to the store and she'd leave and go to Biloxi, Mississippi and drive herself. So it's a, I think that it comes down to your work ethic.

It comes down to, and you've got to be hungry. You've got to be hungry. And I say that that is probably the worst thing that Julie and I have done for our children as a disservice for parents is that we took away a lot of the hunger of our children because we gave them everything that we wanted but did not have growing up. And I don't think that that's a good thing. Would you have done it differently? Yeah. Looking back on it.

I would. I would have had my children get jobs when they were 15 years old, a part-time job, and I would have matched what they made to go towards a car. I wouldn't have just handed them a range rober at 15. I think that those are the mistakes that I have made. You think it's hard as a parent to separate your current lifestyle from raising them that way? Well, I think that where we get in trouble as parents is that if you don't come into parenting a whole human being, then you're going to have some struggles. And a lot of parents don't come into parenting as being a whole adult because I was still trying to feed this young tide.

I was now trying to be the caretaker for Youngtide, giving him everything that he always dreamed about. Well, then I started having children before I could ever feed the Youngtide. So now I kind of put Young Todd on the hold because I had a child. So now I'm going to give everything to the child. And I think that when you give too much, you get very little in return. How does the TV show come about? I was with someone that in at New York Fashion Week and she was there with me and the girls and we laughed the whole week that we were there. And she messaged me and she said, I want to do, this was after Fashion Week.

She said, I want to do a sizzle reel with you and your family. She said, I swear I think you guys are the next version of the Kardashians. And I said, well, we're from the South. And I says, and we don't put all of our dysfunction on the front porch for everybody to see. And she said, just please let me do a sizzle wheel. It will only take like three days. And I said, three days for what? And so she starts telling me.

And at that time, I still had a problem with saying no to people. If someone asked me for something, I would give it to you. I ended up doing the sizzle reel, not thinking anything about it because she had sold me on that she had to present something to the production company that she was with. At that time, she was with Oprah with On Network. And if she didn't turn something in, she's going to lose her job. So here I am thinking, I'm going to help this woman save her job. And six weeks later, I get a phone call and said, and it was from this. guy named Adam Greener who was Maverick Television. And he introduced himself with her. And

she said, Adam says, can I fly to Atlanta to meet you? And I said, why? And he said, because we have presented our sizzle reel that we shot with you to 10 different networks and we've got 10 offers. This is something that's never happened in my career. We've got something here that's magic. And I said, but we're not doing a shut. And he said, I understand that's how you feel. But could I at least come and sit down with you? And I said, I'm actually flying to L.A. tomorrow. Because I had a client that I was doing their home out in Westlake Village.

And I said, we're actually coming to L.A. tomorrow for two weeks. And he said, where are you staying? I said, Beverly Hills Hotel. He says, can I come to lunch there at the polo lounge and sit down and talk to you? And I said, yes. And so it was me and Chase and Savannah because we were all there. So I brought them to the lunch as well. And he sat down.

They told us that they had these 10 offers. And of course, Chase and Savannah was so excited because, you know, they're going to be on television. And Judy and I's parents, we're thinking, do we really want to do this? We have a beautiful life already. And there's really nothing because when you start out in television, you're not making what people think you're making. And so we were not sold on it, but when he said there's 10 networks, 10 networks that made an offer, I started thinking when there's got to be something. There can't be 10 networks that are seeing this and thinking that it's something if there's not.

So long story short, the show was, I ended up having a call with Bonnie Hammer, who was the head of all cable programming for NBC. and she ran all the cable networks for NBC, Lifetime, Oxygen, USA, Bravo, E, all of those were what she ran. And we had a call and she said, Mr. Crisley, she said, you have managed to do something that has not been done before. And I says, and that is, she says, you have got three of my networks bidding against each other. and I saw what is in my business in selling real estate, we would love to see three offers.

And she started laughing. She says, tell me where you want to go. And I said, well, if I'm going to do this, I want to go to E. And she said, why do you want to go to E? I said, because Chris took a blowjob and turned it into a billion dollar empire. And so everyone laughed. And she said, but we don't think that you're E. We think you're USA.

And I said, I don't watch USA. She says, well, you're one of few. She said, because you've got 100 million eyeballs on USA. So if you will agree to go with us, because at that time, the Robertsons Dynasty was on A&E, and A&E was one of the bidders for our show. She said, if you will come to USA, I will do something that has never been done in television.

She says, I will air the original episodes on USA, but I will then rerun those episodes on E and Bravo, and we will find out where you find your footing. Well, God was so good that we found our footing on all three networks. So, and even to this day, the show is still airing and reruns on E and Bravo in USA, and now we're on Peacock. And last week, we were in the top five shows on Peacock. in streaming. And those are just the rich.

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No, because I believe that everything that happens in our life, God knows that's going to happen. I believe, you know, God says that he knew you before you were even conceived. So if God knew you before you were conceived, then God also knew what your life trajectory was going to be. And so to mess with that or the second guess that would be, for me, would make me feel like I'm second guessing God. So everything that we've gone through good, bad, and indifferent, God knew it was going to happen and God knew how we were going to come out. so no I wouldn't change it what do you think was the hardest part about putting yourself out there with your family

over the course of the runs of it in the beginning it wasn't really hard for us we had a wonderful film crew that literally was with us for 12 seasons basically and we didn't have a lot of turnover we were safe they made sure we were safe

and felt protected we just we had a great crew. And at that time, Heather O'Lander, who was with USA Network, she was over our show. And she was very protective of the brand and very protective of the family. And, you know, back in the, when we started, you know, in 2012, press was somewhat contained. You know, press did not, they knew how far they could go with something and how far they could push a lie. Today, there is no journal there is no professionalism and journalism. Today it's it's all clickbait. It doesn't matter whether there's any truth to the story or not as long as they can generate that click. And that's

just not how we started out. So today a family getting into reality television looks a lot different than what it looked like when we got into reality television. And the pay today is a lot different than when we got into it. You know, we were one of the highest paid shows on the air. I see these shows coming out today and what these people are making. And I'm like, oh, okay, we had a good deal. Tell us about the day you find out

that there could be a potential investigation into you. We had actually started it. You know, we, Julie and I, Julie had never had any involvement in the business. but I owned multiple companies. And this one company in particular was Crisly Asset Management. And that company managed non-performing assets for Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Chase. So when one of those banks foreclosed on a piece of real estate, the next day it dumped into our system,

our asset managers took it over and managed that asset into liquidation. I had a CEO that was hired to run that business who had an excellent background educational wise, hired him at a million and a half dollars a year to run it. I was never there. I popped in three, four times a year, and he handled everything. And then I was in Los Angeles, and I got a phone call from his administrator. telling me who was a lovely woman. And she was crying and saying that she was leaving the company.

And she had been there since the day that it opened. Started out as my administrator, but I was never there. So he utilized her. And she told me she was leaving the company. And I said, why? And I said, are you okay? And she said, but you need to know the things that Mark is doing. And I said, which he is.

And she says, Todd, she says, I need for you to come home. And I said, well, Don, I'm not coming home. I says until the Christmas party, because I would always come back there, you know, for the Christmas party and for Thanksgiving. And she said, you need to come back. She says, because he's robbing you blind. And so I got off the phone. I called my attorneys and then got on the plane and blew back the next morning. My attorneys and I met with her.

And she came in the room with this cart that had all these. boxes on it with these accordion folders. And she started opening them up and going through everything, showing how he had moved real estate out of our trust into his name, into another trust that he had, how he was overpaying himself, you know, by millions of dollars. And that there were many times he was making more money than I was making and I owned the company. But I never knew it. The company was paying me a half a million dollars, half a million dollars a month. So I didn't question him because I trusted him. I trusted him so much that he was listed in our will in our estate planning

that if Julie and I, because the attorneys want you, if there's a catastrophe, where you're both killed in an accident or whatever, what is the succession plan? He was part of that succession plan. That he was to oversee our children's trust. He was to make sure that things were handled the way that we wanted them handled. And the whole time he was stealing from. So when we found this out, I went in that day with my attorneys and I lost my shit when I saw him walk through.

And so I punched him dead in the face. And down in the floor, we went. And they grabbed me and threw me in a conference room to get me away from him because they said he was going to sue me for assault. And the battle started then. And so I had, I think, nine attorneys at that time. And we uncovered about $6 million that he had taken. and we went, our attorneys went to Paul Howard, who was the, he's now the former DA in Fulton County and said we want criminal charges brought against him. And Paul Howard said, this is too

complicated, there's too much money involved, we don't have the resources to go through all of this paperwork and stuff, this is a business divorce, it needs to be handled civilly. So we sued him. We got nothing, got nowhere. And so we dismissed it because the show was coming up. So we dismissed it and got him out of our life and just took the $6 million loss and said, you know, we've learned a valuable lesson here. And then the insurance carriers got involved because we filed claims with our insurance carriers. And then he was arrested for theft.

and the insurance company settled with us on some of it and they got a judgment against him and then I bought the judgment from the insurance company so that I could go after him for that. And the show comes out and after the second season of the show, because the show was an instant hit. after the second season, my attorneys notified me that there was an investigation, that he had gone and told the U.S. Attorney's Office that he had done all of these horrific things. Now, when I see all that, yes, that he had forged our name thousands of times to documents, but the biggest thing was that he had lied on a personal financial statement for the company, which I own the company.

And he had put down that it was a million dollars more than what was in that bank account at that time. to renew a construction loan on a property that, on a development that he was supposed to be overseeing, that he had stole money from that construction line of credit. And he knew that if he didn't renew it, and the bank called me, that there was a chance he might be exposed from the money he had taken off of that line of credit.

So he renewed the loan with a personal financial statement that he had embellished by a million dollars. Again, I knew nothing about it. my signature was not on it. The bank never dealt with me. They testified they'd never dealt with me on it. And he knew that there was a potential that we were going to come after him criminally. So he goes to the U.S. attorney's office and says, yes, I did all of these horrific things.

But Mr. Chrissy knew I was doing them. Now, Ian, I want you to think about that. If you know someone's forging your name and obligating you to millions of dollars, are you going to sit by and let them do it? No. Okay. So that just defies logic. So the first round of investigators looked at it with the U.S. Attorney's Office. This is before television and said there is no case here. That there's no proof that Mr. Christen knew any of this. What we do know is that Mark Braddock has embezzled $6 million from this family. We can't go to court with him as a witness. It's got no credibility. Case closed. Done. 2014. And I think it was 17 or 18, our attorneys call us again and say, you're being looked at for tax evasion. And I said, huh?

And he said, the Northern District of Georgia is looking at you for tax evasion. And they're working with the Georgia Department of Revenue. And I said, well, we don't do any of that. I said, that's all handled through accountants. And so we gave them the accountant's name and number. Our attorneys got on the phone with them and he was like, what are you talking about? I filed all their returns the way they're supposed to be filed,

et cetera, et cetera. We never worried about it, Ian, because we knew there was no truth to it. And that this was just someone that was trying to make a name for themselves because that's what our attorneys told us. I guess it was maybe six or eight weeks after that call, we get a phone call from our accountants in Georgia saying something is going on. The FBI just came to our office. And they're asking questions about who owns Seven Seas Productions.

How is the money split up? Because all of us worked under Seven Seas Productions, Seven Cs, Seven Crisleys. And so, yes, there were tens of millions of dollars that was coming through that account. and they were asking the accountant who how much does Mr. Crissley make? Well, it's hard for you to know how much I make because everything goes into the loan out company and whatever the loan out company pays me is what I make on is what's filed.

And so they notified us of that. At that point, we hired four of the, what we thought at the time were some of the best attorneys in Georgia. and then we find out that you had a rogue prosecutor there, Tommy Krep, and working with this young, naive, just not an attractive girl. And, you know, I'm distracted. If you're ugly, I'm distracted by that.

And she was so ugly. And he was nothing to look at either. And he had a lisp. And it really felt like, am I getting in a fucking clown car here? That's what I felt like. And it just turned into a nightmare from that point forward because they wanted the headlines. And, you know, all this stuff that was going out into the press, we were not leaking it.

It was coming from that northern district. It was coming from the Georgia Department of Revenue, which in the end, we sued and we settled for a seven-figure settlement with the Georgia Department of Revenue. they had to acknowledge that they were wrong, that we did not owe millions of dollars in taxes. But in the meantime, the IRS gets involved. And this Tommy Krep and Annalise Peters, who were the prosecutors, was working with a rogue IRS agent, Betty Carter, and who we've proven has lied under oath.

It went to the appellate court. She did not tell the truth under oath. And as a matter of fact, she did notify the prosecutors before the verdict came in in an email. stating that she had made a mistake and that the $500-something,000 payment for 2009 had been sitting under my Social Security number, not Julie's Social Security number, and therefore it was never applied because it was a joint return. Now, make that make sense. This is a woman who worked at, and per her own, the way she identified her position in court was she worked in the IRS. in the division that handled high net worth, high profile individuals.

Now, let's hope you didn't get to that level because you were stupid. You accessed our transcripts 12,000 times. 12,000 times, Ian, this woman accessed all of our transcripts. And you didn't see that payment in 2009. That's bullshit. But that's the country that we live in, and that's the Department of Justice that was being handled under President Biden. Ladies and gentlemen, the big game is almost here,

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But now she found the payment. And what people don't understand is that we were not sentenced on tax evasion. Because when it came out and our attorneys brought it out at sentencing, the judge couldn't sentence on that because there was no money owed. So the judge, again, someone an Obama appointed judge who this woman was so ratchet that she came into a courtroom and allowed her jurors to come in in their pajamas and bedroom slippers. That's how little control she had over her courtroom. This is a judge who still they have someone there within the federal court system in Fulton County that if a financial case comes in front of her, that attorney that's working for the

courts there does all the work because she doesn't understand it. And this woman would come in with no shoes on and go to the bench. Those are things that I look at and say, this is not professional. What are you doing here? You had a, you had a prosecutor to say at the very beginning of our trial that when I'm finished with my opening argument, I will have presented to you the southern version of the Trumps. It should have been thrown out then because now you have literally biased us in front of this jury, which is the largest Democratic county in the state of Georgia. And you're saying that you're making that as an analogy. You go in here and you say these people are on private planes.

These people fly from Nashville to L.A. to have their hair done. their children are living in multi-million dollar mansions. They're doing this. It was all to literally make them to make the jury so nauseated by the wealth and the way that we lived to make them hate you. That's the way it was. And that was not even true. We had a home in L.A. We got our hair cut and whatever we were doing to it at the time, whenever we were in L.A.

It wasn't like we were getting on a plane and flying there to have our hair cut. We were already there. But that's not the narrative that they wanted you to have. And those two prosecutors have now been relieved of their duties. They're no longer with the U.S. Attorney's Office anymore. Did they offer you a plea deal? He did. And my wife said, I know who my husband is.

And keep in mind, they were never prosecuting her until. she spoke up and said that my husband's not taking a deal for something he didn't do. Then they came after her. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that that's what they do. Like they threatened me or saying that they were going to arrest my dad if I took it the trial. And I went to trial. They never arrested him.

They went after that. They then made the threat Tommy Krep did to Bruce Morris, one of our attorneys, and to Steve Friedberg. We may indict his mother if he doesn't take the deal. or we could go after chasing Savannah. And our attorney said, take your best shot. And he never did because there was nothing that was wrong.

But people need to understand that in this country, it is no longer you are innocent until proven guilty. You are guilty until you can prove that you're innocent. And when you start dealing with these attorneys in these U.S. in these districts around the country, U.S. attorneys' offices, they have no,

they have no guardrails. These attorneys can lie in a courtroom, and there's nothing, they've got prosecutorial immunity. There's nothing you do to them. And that's what I'm lobbying against right now, and what Savannah's lobbying against, is that these attorneys need to have the same level

of accountability in a courtroom as if you go in there, line or rope, they get you for perjury. If an attorney for the, for one of these U.S. Attorney's offices in this country, if they come in and they're caught in a lie and ours was caught in lies, you can go back, Ian, and do the research on what was filed in the appellate briefs, do you understand that when we cornered them in their lies, that their response, which was literally months and months and months and months before they ever replied to it, they never addressed the lies that they were guilty of.

They felt by not addressing it, they were not going to be caught on paper lying again. So they just would not address it. And these attorneys, I mean, these judges, keep in mind, these federal judges and state judges were attorneys before they became judges. So they've practiced with these attorneys that's coming in front of them now. they play golf with them they go to the same restaurants they all hang out together christmas parties christmas parties so it's a cluster fuck with all of them it's just a it's just literally a clown car being driven by clowns and it was a it was a heartbreaking disheartening experience that my family had to go through

but the truth is starting to come out you know the case has now been referred to back to the FBI because of there was lying under oath that took place in our trial. Now, we've already been given a pardon. Thank you, President Trump, for our pardon. We've been pardoned, and we're good. But the truth still needs to be told. And the people that lied under oath, they need to be held accountable. What were you convicted on and sentenced on? Bank fraud and tax evasion. And again, I've already explained to you, there was no tax evasion. And there was no bank. First of all, The appellate court kicked Julie's back and said there was no evidence in the trial transcripts to support a guilty verdict on Julie.

And she went, had to go through transit and come back to court because this ratchet judge would not allow her to show up via Zoom because she was so envious of the life that Julie and I had built and one that she was never going to have. she took that revenge out on her by making her go through transit and come there. And to sentence her with the same thing but more, gave her more time after the appellate court had said, there's nothing to prove that she's done anything. Well, when she made that grave error of giving her more time,

the appellate court could take the case from her then, because that was retaliation. The reason that we didn't have to go through the appellate process is because we got our pardon right after she did that. So, see, that stops everything. But now we are suing the attorneys that were involved for the appellate court came back and said that it was ineffective counsel, that our attorneys missed very important filing deadlines that would have allowed evidence to come in to show that this was not true. but that the judge, because they had missed the filing deadline, she didn't have to let it in. We're suing the accountants because we were convicted over what they did.

And the accountant has acknowledged that he was negligent in his handling of our affairs. So we're suing him and we're suing the attorneys. How did you feel when you got sentenced to prison? I think you're just numb. I think you're just numb. And but my faith and Julie's faith was always so strong that we knew that God had a greater plan and that something, God was going to do something. We didn't know what, but we knew God was going to do something and that he was in control. How much time did you ultimately get sentenced to?

I got sentenced to 12 years. Julie got sentenced to, I think, 7, 84 months she got. And how much time did you have to prepare before going to prison? We were given three months. What did you do to prepare? for prison. You get your financial affairs in order. In our case, we signed everything over to Savannah. She was, along with the attorneys, she controlled everything. We had two minor children at the time, Grayson and Chloe. We had to place custody of them in Savannah's care. We just had, you have to get your affairs in order and you have to mentally get yourself in a place to where you know what you've got to, that you're facing and you've got to prepare mentally on how you're going to do that.

Pardon aside, did you calculate how much time you would actually had to have done on that? When Ian, you were there, you know yourself that that is everyone's favorite pastime is calculating how many days you're going to actually be there. And yes, I knew what my numbers were and I was fortunate because I had a real accountant that was telling me what my numbers were. And my attorneys were telling me what my numbers were. and I had a daughter, have a daughter, that was such a fighter, such a warrior, that she knew what her mom and dad's numbers were.

And she was fighting for that. She wasn't just fighting for the pardons the entire time. She was also fighting for to make sure that we were treated fairly, to make sure that we were not being, you know, kind of made an example out of by these staff members within the Bureau of Prisons. and as you and I have talked about, you know, you don't have the crem de la crem working at the Bureau of Prisons. You've got a bunch of ass lickers. And so these people, their lack of education is astonishing to me that you are being placed in a position as a case manager,

which requires you to calculate numbers for these men and women on how long they're going to be incarcerated. and you don't have the intellectual ability to do that. So you just hit and miss. Resulting in so many, you saw it, resulting in so many people staying longer than what they were sentenced to. What was your last evening with Julie like before you guys self-surrendered? It was in prayer. It was in prayer.

Julie and I have a kneeling bench in our bedroom that we do our prayer on every morning when we get out of bed and we kneel every night before we go to bed. And it was in prayer. I remember holding her and telling her, she said she was scared. And she said, are you not scared? And I said, no, because God, and I had told her this,

God had given me a peace about three weeks before. And I had zero fear. God had taken all of that for me. And I remember, she says, but he hasn't done that for me. And I said, you have to keep praying. You have to pray harder. because God, you're not walking in there by yourself.

You are God's child. And God chose you to walk through those doors. It's up to us to find out what that purpose is that's going to come from this. And I remember hugging her that morning because I left Savannah and her former fiance, Nick, who has since passed away. And Grayson took me and Chase and his mother and her parents took her. and I remember hugging her and telling her that I loved her and that it will not be as long as you think it is.

What was day like, day one like for you in prison? I think you're in shock because you're trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing. When I got there, I walked in with cash. I mean, I didn't know that you, I mean, my dad raised me. I always have cash in your pocket. So I walked in with $1,000 cash and with my Bible. and they took my cash and said that it would go into my trust fund account.

And then they took me to where I would pick up my uniforms because I was on a military base. And so, you know, you dressed like the military dressed. And so I went and I was so dumb because all of our clothes goes to the dry cleaners except certain things that are washed within our home. So they told me to go, they took me up there to get my uniforms and they gave me these two laundry bags. And when I go to my bed, it was a bunk bed. And the other guys were in there and they were all lovely, they were all lovely to me. I never had one negative interaction with anyone other than staff.

But I knew what my mission was. After about three days, I knew what my mission was. I knew it was us against them. And I remember the, about the fourth day, it was laundry day. So I remember saying to one of the guys, I said, where do we take our dry cleaning? And they turned and looked at me and they said, what? And I said, where do you, what day is dry cleaning? And they said, what do you mean dry cleaning?

I said, like for your uniforms. And they're like, no, that's laundry. And I said, well, but who does, who's going to, who's going to starch and make sure that they're pressed and all of that? And they started laughing and they said, Todd, you're in prison. You have laundry. You have laundry on Monday. You have sheets on Wednesday. And that's every week.

I says, you only change your bed one time a week. and they laughed and they said yes I said that just doesn't sound right to me and so I then started asking around to other guys that I started working out with and they go Todd there's people that will do your laundry I mean in the laundry I mean they'll do yours separately

you just have to pay them and I said okay no problem introduce me and so I had someone that did my laundry I had another guy that ironed my uniforms, you know, every day. Because I had five uniforms. You're only supposed to have three, but I had five. Your sheets, you only have one set of sheets.

You take those off and you send them to the laundry. I did not have one set of sheets. My sheets were changed Monday, Wednesday, Friday, which I just think is proper hygiene. and the I did things the way that I tried to run my room the way that my house ran and and I eventually got it to that point you know to where everyone had extra sheets and blankets to where they could rotate out and this episode is brought to you by Subaru go further in a long range Subaru hybrid with up to 581 miles per tank in the Forrester hybrid longer. range, better fuel efficiency, and legendary symmetrical all-wheel drive, standard. The Subaru Forrester Hybrid. Visit Subaru.com slash hybrid to learn more. Maximum range based on EPA estimated combined fuel economy and a full tank of fuel. Actual mileage and range may vary.

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You're clearly working it. Zootopia 2. Now available on Disney Plus rated PG. I never went to Chow Hall one time. My card was never used one time at Chow Hall. You've never eaten a prison meal. Never had one prison meal. Even on day one?

No. So did you know that there was going to be commissary or items you could go to? When I got to. there, there were things that had already been sent there for me that was waiting on me. From, it was the craziest thing. From the heads of drug cartels whose family loved our show, they were calling them and saying, you better take care of Mr. Crisley. And I'm in a camp.

So I don't even know any of this stuff. And so all my stuff was already there. So I was blessed. So when I talk about the prison system, my experience, my experience, is way different than yowers and way different than so many other people because I did get preferential, well, not really preferential treatment, but because of having access to money, it does give you preferential treatment. And you know that. You were there.

By the time that I left, I had, by the time that I left, I had nine staff members that were being paid to bring my food in. they hid my cell phones. They wore pins that looked like a regular ballpoint pen and was recording other staff members on the corruption that was going on, on the racism that was going on. Because at that facility, and it's not just isolated because you know you were at another facility, anyone with brown skin is treated differently.

Now, you know that. And I couldn't do that. I just was never in my DNA. I wasn't raised that way. I have a daughter that is a child of color, Chloe. And I know that the world will perceive her as a black female. And I cannot stand by and watch someone being mistreated or someone being belittled or spoken down to or I just couldn't do it.

And we had the education department head over the education department who I got on recording saying, if they don't speak English, we don't fuck with them. Put them in refusal status. Well, you and I both know once you go in refusal status, you're not collecting FSA. The reason they don't want you collecting FSA is because that's job security for them. The more inmates they are, the more staff member they have to hire. So the longer they can keep you, the longer they have a job. And once I got so in with a lot of these staff members, they started providing information to Savannah. And she talked about it on her podcast. And they were sending her documents. They were sending her medical records that you're not supposed to have. They were sending her

evidence of staff members stealing from the federal government. And clearly everything that we said was truth or had some merit of truth to it. it because that prison was closed down. When I left, it was only months. And it's very important to know that when I left, I was invited back to speak at the final graduating class for ARDAP, which is a program that if it was ran the correct way would be a great program. But again, you're dealing with a bunch of window lickers here.

Think about this. If you spend your, if you spend your early part of your life going to school to become a doctor of psychology, is the prison system where you, is that going to be your first stop to go get a job? No. So it tells you that they were low hanging fruit in their class.

They were not up here with all the scholars. They were down here cheating to get the passing grade. And we had that with Mandy Ramsey, Dennis Prophet, prophet was a monster to these men and I had his ass walked out. He was disciplined. It is now on his record that he was disciplined for what he did to some of these men at Pensacola. He was forced into retirement.

Mandy Ramsey has retired. Janet Genelette, who was literally just the, she was the bane of existence for people. This woman was, again, so, well, first, of all, you already know what I'm getting ready to say here. There are no good looking people in the Bureau of Prisons. That is just, it's just some of the most unattractive people and unkept and fat and sloppy and not taking care of themselves. I mean, you are working in a prison where you're supposed to feel unsafe, right?

Wouldn't you want to be at your maximum potential to outrun one of these fuckers when they grab you? Nah, the only thing they're running to is chow. So it was a, that the Pensacola, FPC Pensacola has shut down now. But Janet Genelat was a case manager there. She was the most vile, despicable form of humanity that I have ever dealt with in my life. Ignorant was just an understatement. Ignorant, someone that you called ignorant would be pissed off that you even classified her as ignorant.

and she looked like a yard gnome and there was just there was just no one I mean and they're dealing with these men and these white collar camps that have spent more money on a dinner or a flight than what they make in three months so they resent that they resent what these people come from and what they're going back to because all they have in their life is this piece of shit job and that piece of shit that they call home that they have to leave and go back to every day.

And, you know, I remember doing an interview and they said, why do you think that the staff was so eager to work with you? I said, because I paid better than the BOP. Because now think about it, you're, I don't know if you even know this, but managers at Taco Bell make more than COs do

that's been there with the BOP for 15 years. When I was at Whole Foods, I was making $33,000 an hour with overtime. It was over 100K. Right, which is way more than what the normal staff member makes there. A warden who runs that facility is not even $200,000. It's like $150,000 a year.

That's a warden. And we had the worst warden. This ratchet-ass, bad wig wearing cock-eyed heifer Sherry Salisbury Now she is now at Fountain Prison in Alabama Because I had her ass ushered out of there as well She was a die hard

Well she was a lesbian Which I'm all four lesbians I'm a lesbian contrary to some people's belief Um But She hated men so bad And I would confront her every time she would lie and she called me up to her office when the heat was really coming down on her by the office of the inspector general over the complaints that Savannah had filed and the evidence that we had turned over and she said to me

Mr. Christie do you know why I've called you up here and I said you missed me Mr. Christley this is not comedy hour I said no because I've performed in much better places and she said Mr. Mr. Christley, this is my camp. I run it. Not you. I said, that's evident by the way it runs. Mr. Christy, don't be cute with me. I could send you to the shoe. I said, and you and I both know that if you could, what did you need? She said, you and I have a lot more in common than you think we do. And I said, Ms. Salisbury, that's Warden Salisbury to you. I said, Miss Salisbury, the only thing that I can think of that you and I have in common is that we're both lesbians. of that, I can't imagine that you and I have anything else in common. Now, this is the same woman when she took over as warden called me into her office four days after she had been there and I had passed her on the sidewalk. I nodded to her. I didn't know who she was. I mean, I thought she was just some other low IQ individual that was working there.

and she calls me up there and says that she was offended because that she had researched me and that she knew that my fashion acumen was so on point that I knew so much about fashion but yet I never commented about her Gucci belt that she was wearing. That's what she called me to her office to ask me. And I said, well, that's because it wasn't real. It was a knockoff.

Mr. Chrissy, it was not a, I said, it is. I says, just as you've stated, I know what the labels are and I know what the product looks like. I said, but you did have on zero grand. I says, by Kohen. I said, I'll give you that. So I did, I had, and I'm proud to say I had no relationship with this ratchet ass.

First of all, this bitch would come in with these cheap ass wigs on. Wouldn't he be lined up? Would not even be lined up? And I know better than that. if I as a white man raising a child of color knows that your edges need to be right, you who've had edges your whole life should know that they should be right. But she was just no good and she hated men. She would do shakedowns and steal their underwear because she'd say they didn't come from commissary

that they came from outside the facility, not taking into consideration that a lot of these men had come there from other facilities that they did buy some of this stuff there. Now, my stuff, it did not come from there. My stuff came from Walmart or Coles, which I had never bought from before, but I found out that hell about the same as what you're buying anywhere else.

And the guards didn't give you a hard time for contraband? They brought it to me. Well, the other guards that weren't on your payroll. They didn't nobody come in. The only people that dealt with me were the people that were taking money from us. And I'm not saying anything on this podcast that I've not said on Chrysad Confessions 2.0

or that I've not said to the Office of Internal Affairs or that I've not said to the director or the deputy director, they know what went on there. And listen, I ended up spending, I think it was $49,000 or $59,000 in the 28 months that I was there. What was the typical day like for you there? Like, what was your routine?

Well, I did not work. They assigned me to the chapel because they said they had to have eyes on me at all times because I was high profile. So I went to the chapel. I got up every morning and I showered and shaved and I put on my pressed uniform. My bed was made. And then I took my vitamins.

And then I went to the chapel and I watched whatever the talk shows were that were on that day. And then at noon, when everyone went to the slop trough is what I called it. I went and worked out because I was finished by 12 o'clock. So I showed up at 9 and was gone by 12. And then I went and worked out. Then I checked my emails and I emailed all of my kids and Julie and my mom. And then I left the library and walked up to the phone thing and called Savannah or Chase or Grayson, whichever. If Savannah was filming or she was in D.C. or whatever, I called Chase and Grayson.

Then I came back and then I would read or I would write because I was creating show content while I was there because it was like a gift that kept giving. Like I have an animated series coming out now. And it's about nothing but prison life there at Pensacola. And I had this big, fat, sloppy captain and kept him big. And him touch with a wisp. Mr. Quistley, let me tell you this is going to be a problem. I'm sorry, and I'm going to need you to repeat that. I would do that to him three or four times,

and he'd get so frustrated, he'd just say, fuck it and walk away. But he was a ghost chaser by profession. I mean, this was on his Facebook page, that he was a professional ghost chaser. That's what's working at the BOP folks. Professional ghost chasers. And he also practiced witchcraft. So he had all these little dolls in his office lined up in the window.

Well, this fat slot hog fell out in the parking lot one day. And he was so fat. That's, I have to give him credit because he was the reason that I created the animated series that's coming out. He failed and his stomach was so big that when he failed, his radio went across the parking lot. And his stomach was so big that he bounced. When he landed on his stomach, he went poop, poop. I'm walking to the phone to call Savannah and I see this and I'm dying laughing on the sidewalk. Now there were cameras everywhere.

I get called in by SIS the next day, warden standing there, SIS, and this fucker named Albert Cheatham, who was supposed to be the case management coordinator and so damn dumb. He looked like the judge and the Muppets that sat up there in the top loft with that big old bushy head. And they were standing there and they go, do you know why we called you in? And I said, hi, riddle me that, I don't know. They pulled up on the screen, me laughing on the sidewalk as Captain Berg's laying sprawled out in the parking lot. And they said, you didn't offer to assist an officer that was down. And I said, I didn't have a crane.

I said, and I'm not throwing my back out to lift that beached well up. I said, I'm here to do time, not chores or community service. So if his fat ass chooses to wallow in the parking lot, that's on him. That ain't on me. You can leave now. I said, thank you. I turned around and walked out. So he became the catalyst for the animated series because he was so just, ugh, so fat and ugly and disheveled and smelled horrible.

He smelled like leftovers all the time. And so I created this animated series about the staff members at Pensacola and some of the and some of my brothers that were there. And it's going to be amazing because with animation you can over-exaggerate anything. In this case, I didn't have to over-exaggerate Captain Berg or Janet Genelette. What was your favorite meal in there to eat off the commissary that wasn't smuggled in from the street? Or did you never eat commissary either? Well, I had food that was brought in.

So I had Culvers, which I had never had before in my life and that I love. And I find now that I don't eat it because I can go get it on my own. Chick-fil-A, I had Mondays and Wednesdays. Then I had pizza brought in for me and my friends on like a weekend. Olive Garden. I tried one time. I'd never had that before. And so I ate Olive Garden one time, but I didn't like it, so I didn't order that again. But are you saying like food that was made? Like you go to commissaire. Yeah. Probably my cassidias that my guy would make me, because he would use the iron to make the cassidias. You ever have prison cheesecake? No, I didn't eat that because I saw how they made that with all that coffee cream and stuff. I used to make it. Yeah. It was really good, though.

No, that was my hustle. Yeah, but that's just not good for your body. And so I never ate that. But a lot of people did. They made that. Macral? No, that smelled like bad pussy. It smells so bad.

Like, it reminded me of this girl that I was with when I was in high school one time. And I didn't want, I didn't go back to Susan for seconds for that. And I didn't want no damn mackerel. So no. But you mix it with some tuna, a little mayo. No, no. No. Nope.

We're not mixing none of that shit. I did not eat that. Now, your relationship with Julie, could you guys see each other, talk to each other? Could not see each other? Because my wife is a rule follower and she did not use cell phones. So I could not talk to her. Now, there were staff members on a couple of occasions that allowed us to speak that would, from Julie's side and my side, they'd coordinate it.

I think that was twice. But we never spoke on. a cell phone. I did not get to see her. We kept our communication via email. Did you lose love for her at all when you don't have that? God, no, no. When you meet someone in your life that can finish your sentences or really they can answer for you before you've processed your own thoughts, that is someone that you have a soul tie with. And I knew that from the first day that I met. Julie and I never felt like that distance was a thing for me because she and I are so close that I lived on my memories of her. So I never and plus I talk to my kids every day at night

and they talked to their mom and so she would always send messages by them to send to me. Tell your dad I love him. Tell your dad that maybe this will be the last birthday that we'll be apart. So we kept our love for each other. That was never a question as to whether or not that was going to sustain. It was going to sustain itself. How did you celebrate holidays and birthdays in there? I called my, I was never a holiday person. So that was harder for Julie, because Julie's always made sure that our homes were always decorated. She started her Christmas stuff in November. She's always been big for everyone's birthday. She's always been big for everyone's days, that was a big thing for her. For me, it wasn't. I called my kids on their birthday. I talked to them

on that phone, you know, the, what is the pay phone or whatever it's called? The wall phone, yeah. The wall phone. I called them that morning from that. But then at 4 o'clock when I got my phone, I called and wished him a happy birthday and made sure that a gift was sent to them and things were done the way it was supposed to be done. Now, when do you first start to get rumblings about a potential pardon? I didn't. I didn't. I knew, I found out through Alex Little, our attorney, that Savannah was working on trying to secure a pardon for me and Julie. And Savannah had not even told us. And so when I, Savannah came to visitation, I asked her about it because I had my legal call that same week. And she said, yes, but daddy, don't get your hopes up.

She said, because it's such a low percentage of people that get them. And I said, okay. And I said, well, what are you doing? I mean, what is the process? And she kind of walked me through it. But she didn't talk about it a lot. She'd just say, I'm still working. I'm still working.

But I knew that she was in D.C. a lot. And that she was going to events a lot. And that she was working with the attorneys every day. And she was focusing on having things uncovered and, you know, information being corrected and things like that. So I didn't know. Were you following her journey from your cell phone in prison? It was pretty incredible, like from an outsider standpoint, before even having meting you guys,

what she was able to build during that time period. Yes, yes. The public saw that in real life. Yes. And I would have people that would come to me, the staff members, and say, I saw Savannah on News Nation yesterday. She was amazing.

I saw Savannah on this show and this show. Did you know that Savannah's doing special forces? I said, no, what is that? And so they would tell me, and I'd call her that night. So what is special forces? Savannah, why would you do something like this? This is not ladylike. And you could get hurt.

She says, Daddy, I can do it. I can do it. And she did it. And Savannah is just a warrior. Savannah has strength unlike anyone I had ever known outside of myself and her mother. and the reserves that she feels like every product claims real protein these days but real doesn't start on a label it starts at the source like real california milk from california farm families it's real dairy delivering high quality complete protein with all nine essential amino acids to help build

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Because I think this stupid bitch, Sherey Sawsby, I might have to cuss her out again. And so I said, what now? And he was one of the good ones. He was not on my payroll, but he was one of the good ones. And he said, you're leaving. I said, I know I'm leaving at some point. He said, no, you're leaving.

He said, you've been pardoned. I said, shut the fuck up. And he goes, you've been pardoned. I was told to get eyes on you. So I walked, I said, are you serious? And he said, yes. And I remember just feeling numb as I was on that sidewalk. And I left and went on back to my dorm.

And as I was coming through my dorm, I saw Mammala, who was the case manager. Not case manager, but he was the unit team manager. he was coming down that hallway and there was a door and he said and I went through that door and came in his office and he goes congratulations I said four because I didn't want to say I knew anything because then I've gotten this officer in trouble for telling me and I said four and he said you've been pardoned he said it's not just a pardon it's a full pardon of everything and I just stood there He said, you're okay? And I said, yeah, y'all ain't going to be.

But if I'm pardoned, y'all are fucked. He said, I've not done anything to you. I've always been good to you. I said, but you ain't never done shit for nobody else. And he said, Chris Lee, be grateful for this moment. I said, I am. Are you positive? And he said, yes.

So at about 15 after 4, which was the 4 o'clock count, they brought me my phone, the staff member who kept it hidden for me. Brought me my phone. And she said, you've been pardoned. I said, so I hear. And I said, is it true? And she said, they're processing paperwork now. She said, I was just up in the front office. And I said, okay.

So then I called Savannah. and she said, hello? And I said, is it true? And she started crying. I'll get emotional right now. But she started crying and she said, Daddy, you're coming home. And I said, what about your mama? She said, Mama's coming home too.

Y'all are leaving the same time. She said, I'm trying to figure out how to get a plane to you and get one to Mama and how we're going to do this. And I started crying. It was the first time that I had lost control. I started crying. and I said, this is 100% real. Like it's not going to change. She said, no, Daddy.

She said, President Trump called me. And she said, I was going into Sam's when I got the message that the president was going to be calling me. And I ran out of Sam's to get in the car so that nobody would hear me. And so I then knew that it was true. And so I told none of my folks there except my, a lot of the young kids, Ian, when they came, they would send them to my pod because my pod was never full. The warden would not allow a lot of people to be in my pod.

Even though it would hold 16 people, I only had like eight. And those young kids, they would always bring them to me. And I say that God did that because I had been raising children since I was 21. And that was the biggest thing that bothered me is because I wasn't out to raise my children, even though they were grown except for Grayson and Chloe. God brought me and entrusted me with someone else's child. And all of my

kids are doing good now. I've got them all home except one. And I check on him every day. I had him moved to Kentucky. Aaron, Aaron Boswell. And he's a wonderful young man that my family and I love dearly um all of my other kids Tanner Schuyler um Brian you know all of my kids are all home now and doing good and I follow them and we talk every day or message every day or we Instagram each other something every day but when I when they came and told me what when I knew that it was happening I called Aaron one of my I called it my prison son um he came in from D.Z where he'd been working. And he goes, what's up?

And I said, same shit different day. He said, they didn't come here tearing up today. And I said, they did on the other side. He said, they ain't coming over here. And I said, they've learned. And I said, Sam. He said, oh, hell, I didn't do nothing. I promise you.

And I said, I'm leaving. And this is someone who's sick. five, tatted from asshole to elbow. And everybody knows me, knows how I'm about tattoos. And he just looked at me and he said, are you fucking with me? I said, no. He said, I'm so happy for you.

And I looked at him, I said, I will not forget you. And I said, I made a promise to you that I will help you and I will. And he's, don't worry about me. he said I've been worried about me my whole life he said you go and have a great life and I said I'll be back for you and um I had seven sweatsuits

you know you're only supposed to have two I had seven that were first quality from outside not the seconds that you get in commissary and um I gave all of those to my kids I'd split them between two of them and so they would have new

sweatsuits and then I gave them my tennis shoes. I had six pair and I gave them to the ones that they fit because they were like new. I gave everything I had away to the people that I knew that needed it that had no money that could not shop commissary

and I kept their commissaries going even after I left. But I remember Mammala who was the case manager coming down and he says, I've got to keep you in the office with me. He said, they want eyes on you. And I said, okay, he said, you know that the press, at that point they had locked down the entire camp. No one could leave because the press was so bad. I mean, they were

lined up for miles. I mean, they were standing on the hoods of their cars, waving flags. Savannah was out there kissing babies and, you know, going the hell off because they had not let me out yet. And then she got in touch with the director and he made a call. And Mamla came and said, please tell your daughter that I'm doing everything I'm being told to do. He says, she's literally losing her mind because I've not walked you out yet. And I'm waiting on them to update it in the central office. look, let me show you. And he's showing me on his monitor that had not been updated. And he said, you got to go pack all your stuff.

I said, I gave all my stuff to the people that I wanted to have it. And I had six lockers full of food that I gave to the people that I knew needed it. And the only thing I walked out there with was my three ring binder. I saw the video. Yeah. That was an incredible moment. And that was all of my shit that I had on them. and inside of it was my cell phone

to which I gave to them when I walked out. To the officers? AW. I said, y'all tore these dorms up for the last 18 months looking for this bitch right here. I said, I want you to make sure she gets it. And they just looked at me in a state of shock. And I had had it deleted, everything taken off of it,

stripped down to factory settings, then one of my kids who was tech savvy, because you know there's a lot of y'all that know a hell of a lot more about technology than my generation does. He was able to take a screenshot of her Facebook profile pick and that made that the screensaver on that phone.

And it was handed to him and I said, that's what I use to take you down. What's your biggest takeaway from everything you've been through with this situation? Why do you think you needed to go through it? I think that God gives us all a humbling season. And, you know, my family has been very blessed. And we've had really no financial struggles.

We have had emotional, we've had heartbreak. We've lost loved ones. We've been betrayed. And we survived all of it. But I truly believe that God ordained this mission that he sent us on so that I could become a voice for those that were voiceless. To be able to expose the corruption, the abuse, the neglect, the inhumane treatment, the inhumane living conditions that men and women are kept in,

in a country that is the wealthiest in the world, and a nation that's the wealthiest in the world in, we have the highest recidivism rate, yet we incarcerate more individuals than anywhere else in the world. world. The United States of America has never been good with math, but let me just break it down to you. If you are, if you are incarcerating more men and women than anywhere else in the world in your country and you still have the highest recidivism rate, you got more practice with more people to get it right than anywhere else in the world and you are still getting it wrong. That should be a sign that the system is broken and what you're doing is not right. The fraud that I exposed $400 million stolen,

misappropriated from the First Step Act that President Donald Trump put into place in 2018. President Biden goes into office because the FSA was going to be something good for the men and women in prison and he would have gotten credit for doing something good, we're not going to do it. We're going to fuck it up even more. And that's what they did under the Biden administration. $400 million a year taken from the First Step Act's budget, but yet no one was leaving.

Do you understand, Ian, that since President Trump took over and he placed Billy Marshall, who was the director, of the Bureau of Prisons. Since he placed him in that position, more people have left under the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, which was put in long before we had First Step Act. More people have left under Billy Marshall under the First Step Act than any of,

than since it was put in in 2018, because they didn't want to do it because they viewed it as it was creating job instability for these staff. members. So we will enslave these men and women because that's what it is. You're getting you're getting slave labor under the 13th Amendment. It's the only thing that is left. The 13th amendment was used to abolish slavery. The only thing left in the 13th Amendment is that the only way you can have slave labor is through prison. Through prison. So you're paying these men and women 30 cents an hour to work out in 110 degree weather in Pensacola, Florida, mowing yards

for the Navy, for the naval base. And when the Navy says, you know, black flag, meaning it's too hot to be out, Sherry Salisbury was still making these men mow these yards with a heat index so high that men were passing out and would not allow them to have water. would not allow them to take a jug of water with them. It was her form of abuse. So what do I think, what do I think, why do I think that this happened? I think because God wanted me to see that.

He needed me to see that. What do I think has come out of that? 98 men have been brought home since May the 28th when I left. This morning I got a text message that six more have had recalculations done and they're leaving today because they're overstayed they're welcome, which should bother you as a taxpayer that these men and women are being kept there at $122 a day. That is $122 a day that you're having to share with every other taxpayer in the country to keep someone locked up who shouldn't be locked up.

So do I look at it from a place of bitterness? No, I don't. I'm not bitter about it. I'm grateful that God allowed me to go through it and allowed me to survive it. And again, my survival is overly exaggerated. I was in a camp. I wasn't where you went. I had no one to bother me.

No one put their hands on me. No one ever was inappropriate in that manner with me. But I also believe that they zone in on people that they know they can do that too. and they knew that there was a voice attached to our name that was too loud for them to get passed. So I exposed a CO there that Pensacola Sullivan. He was let go from the Bureau of Prisons for sexually assaulting a male inmate there. And I am now pushing for him to be indicted for that charge. and I'm going to continue until I make sure that he has held to the same accountability

as those that he was lording over. You had one CO at Miami that was just arrested for firing a gun, shooting a gun at a car, and it landed in the headrest of the car without killing the person. So now guess what? He's no longer at the BOP now. but this is who works there. Lording over people coming in, you know, stealing things from inmates, you know they do that, that hardworking families are spending the money to send to their loved ones to be able for them to buy certain things.

And then the staff members come in and they take it. I'm grateful that God has used to me. And I'm grateful that he still has enough faith and trust in me that I'm not going to lay down the torch. Well, Todd, I'm grateful for you coming. on the show today and I really appreciate the time. Well, it was my pleasure to come on your show. And I love that you have done so well in your life and the challenges that you have had and how you have managed to turn lemons into lemonade. And you've done a wonderful job with your podcast. I'm very proud of you for that. And I looked at your numbers. And your numbers are great.

I live by numbers. I passed the Todd Crisley test. You passed everyone's test. I think when people look at your YouTube numbers, you're very impressive. Thank you. So you were to be commended for that. And you're a young kid who had this one moment in time. But God is giving you everything in front of you. So what's behind you, there's a reason that it's behind you because what's behind you is never going to be greater than what's in front of you.

So keep looking in front of you, Ian. And don't forget where you came from. and that is a part of your life that you will live with for the rest of your life, but you can use it for good. And you're doing that when you give these people platforms to show that they have survived it and that they're doing well. So for that, I'm appreciative that you asked for me to be on your podcast. I appreciate the kind of words, Todd.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.