OAN Staff Lillian Mann
4:30 PM – Thursday, June 11, 2026
Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley have filed a lawsuit against their former defense attorneys, alleging that a series of critical defense blunders led to the mismanagement of their high-profile tax evasion case and ultimately resulted in their imprisonment.
The ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ stars filed a $25 million lawsuit on June 5th, alleging legal malpractice and breach of contract against the law firm Balch & Bingham LLP and attorney Chris Anulewicz, according to documents obtained by USA Today.
Todd and Julie Chrisley were indicted on fraud charges in 2019, after the Georgia Department of Revenue searched their property, despite the couple continuously denying the allegations. A district court later ruled that the search was unlawful.
In June 2022, the pair was convicted of conspiring to defraud Atlanta-area community banks out of more than $30 million, as well as carrying out a scheme that defraud the IRS and evaded taxes through fraudulent loans.
Todd Chrisley was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Julie received a seven-year sentence. The couple reported to federal prison on January 17, 2023. Though both of their sentences were later reduced, they were granted full pardons by President Donald Trump on May 27, 2025, after serving more than two years in custody and were subsequently released.
In the lawsuit, the Chrisley’s allege that Anulewicz only tried to block some of the evidence and failed to suppress “the emails, bank records and financial documents that federal agents obtained because of what they learned from the illegal search,” which they argued was evidence that “formed the core of the government’s case.”
“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 read. “The result of Defendants’ conduct was a catastrophic, unforced error that sent two people to federal prison for crimes they would never have been convicted of had their lawyers done their jobs.”
The legal battle and convictions, they say, cost Todd and Julie Chrisley “more than $25 million in income,” while also damaging their reputations and taking away time with their family.
“This was not a close call on a hard-legal question. It was a failure of basic competence that Balch, as an institution, allowed to happen,” the couple emphasized.
They are seeking at least $25 million in damages, plus “interest at the maximum rate allowed by law,” as well as attorneys’ costs and fees and are requesting a 12-person jury trial.
Todd and Julie Chrisley also claim that the firm and Anulewicz were not qualified to handle their case but took it on anyway “because the Chrisley name meant money, publicity, and the kind of high-profile notoriety that brings in business.”
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