Todd Chrisley Says He Felt 'Numb' When Learning Of Pardon & Insists He's Innocent In Press Conference Celebrating Prison Release

Todd Chrisley couldn’t believe it when Donald Trump pardoned him and his wife.

As you know, the Chrisley Knows Best star and his wife Julie Chrisley have been serving time in separate prisons for their fraud and tax evasion charges. Their daughter Savannah Chrisley has been at the forefront trying to get them out of jail, and her work paid off when the President pardoned the reality TV stars on Tuesday.

On Friday, the Chrisley patriarch held a press conference alongside Savannah to talk about the pardoning — and from what he says, he was so surprised when he found out:

“I had a staff member that came to me and said, ‘You’ve just been pardoned.’ And I just looked at him, and he says, ‘No, really, you’ve been pardoned. It’s in the news.’ I remember walking back from the phone and just feeling numb, not really knowing.”

Wow… What a shock that must’ve been. He was originally sentenced to 12 years, so he got out very early!

According to Todd, though, his mind wasn’t only on his freedom. He was worried about his friends he’d made behind bars:

“And then after about 10 minutes, all I could think about were the guys that I was leaving behind, because I had made such wonderful relationships with those men.”

He went on to describe how some of the prisoners were even begging him not to go:

“And when I left that day, they — there was only 317 men at our camp — but they were lined up shouting when I was walking out. They were saying, ‘Don’t leave. Don’t forget us. Don’t forget us.’ And my commitment is to them that I will never forget them.”

Despite his two and a half years in jail, though, the 56-year-old maintains his innocence. He said he’s going to continue to be outspoken about his experience with the justice system. He explained:

“Even though this pardon has happened, I still was convicted of something that I did not do. It could be you, it could be you, it could be any of you, and somewhere in this room, someone has had a family member that has been affected by the system. So I understand the shame that’s around it, but I refuse to feed into that, because shame is like a cancer that just spreads, and I have no shame.”

You can watch the full press conference (below):