Chrisleys Sue Lawyers: The Back Door They Forgot to Lock

When Todd and Julie Chrisley were hit with federal fraud charges, they trusted their legal team to fight back. Now, they’re claiming that trust was betrayed—and they’re seeking more than $25 million to prove it.

The Chrisley Knows Best stars have filed a lawsuit against their former attorney Chris Anulewicz and the law firm Balch&Bingham, arguing that a critical lapse in legal strategy paved the way for their convictions. Here’s the core complaint: the government’s case allegedly grew from an illegal warehouse search that happened years before the couple was even indicted. The defense team successfully convinced a judge to exclude some of that tainted evidence—but according to Todd and Julie, they stopped there. While prosecutors couldn’t use the direct results of the illegal search, Anulewicz and his team never challenged the derivative evidence: the emails, bank records, and other documents investigators uncovered as a result of that initial unconstitutional seizure. In other words, their lawyers locked the front door but left the back wide open.

The lawsuit doesn’t just challenge the legal strategy—it takes personal shots at Anulewicz himself. Todd and Julie claim he lacked meaningful criminal defense experience when he took on their high-profile case. Even more eyebrow-raising: they allege he convinced them to invest $75,000 in his brother-in-law’s food truck startup while representing them. It’s hard to see how that inspires confidence in someone’s judgment during a federal trial.

The stakes for the Chrisleys extended far beyond courtroom losses. They lost their hit TV show, endorsement deals, millions in income, and time with family after being sent to prison. Though they received pardons from President Trump last year—a dramatic eleventh-hour reprieve—they’re now pursuing accountability through the courts. Their message to their former lawyers is straightforward: you were supposed to protect us, and your mistakes cost us our freedom. Whether that argument will persuade a judge remains to be seen, but the lawsuit underscores a painful reality: when your defense team stumbles, the consequences can echo for years.