The White House says Jason Galanis, Savannah Chrisley’s new fiancé, showed remorse before President Trump cut his prison term. TMZ posted the explanation Wednesday, one day after Chrisley announced her engagement and pregnancy.
White House Explains Savannah Chrisley Fiancé Jason Galanis Release
A White House official told TMZ that Galanis pleaded guilty to seven counts of securities fraud and had served eight years and eight months when he applied for clemency. The official said he took full responsibility and expressed “genuine regret and remorse.” The official added that nothing ties his clemency to Trump’s pardon of Savannah’s parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, in May 2025. The official also said there is reason to believe the Chrisleys’ sentencing was politically motivated. TMZ presents that as the White House’s stated reason for the parents’ pardon.
Savannah, 29, and Galanis, 56, announced the engagement and pregnancy on Tuesday, October 27, according to E! Online and InTouch Weekly via Yahoo. TMZ’s story posted at 12:30 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday. Galanis served time in the same prison as Todd Chrisley, and TMZ says their sentences overlapped. InTouch names the facility as FPC Pensacola.
Pardon or Commutation? Sources Disagree
The coverage does not agree on what Galanis received. TMZ’s headline calls it a commutation, while its text says only that Trump sprung him. InTouch Weekly, in a story posted Wednesday at 6:54 p.m. UTC, says Trump commuted his sentence in March 2025 and that the commutation wiped out the restitution he owed. An earlier Yahoo story, posted Tuesday at 7:38 p.m. UTC, says he received a pardon in March 2025. InTouch’s headline says pardon, while its body describes a commutation.
The sources also disagree on the sentence. The Tuesday Yahoo story says he served an 11-year sentence for swindling investors, and that a judge added five years in 2017 for a bond scam that defrauded Native Americans. InTouch cites a 16-and-a-half-year term. TMZ gives no total and does not state the clemency date.
If the March 2025 date holds, the timing adds a wrinkle. Galanis would have received clemency about two months before the Chrisley pardons in May 2025. The White House official told TMZ the two have no apparent link. The reports reviewed do not show evidence either way.
Galanis Case Brings a $100 Million Debt Trail
TMZ says Galanis owed more than $100 million in restitution, forfeitures, taxes and other liabilities. InTouch breaks that into $37 million in restitution, forfeitures of $37 million and $43 million, and roughly $12 million in taxes. InTouch reports that clemency erased the restitution. Galanis has a long paper trail. InTouch reports that he divorced his ex-wife, Monet Berger, in 2018. The Yahoo story from Tuesday adds that a judge in 2017 added five years to his first sentence, which sits close to the 16-and-ahalf-year term InTouch cites.
The fraud involved the Wakpamni Lake Community Corp., a business arm of a community of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. InTouch, citing CBS News, says proceeds from the bond scheme paid for his Bel Air mansion and a Manhattan apartment. TMZ’s separate story says he admitted defrauding a Native American tribe.
TMZ also ties the scheme to Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, who were partners in the 2014 to 2016 venture. TMZ says Hunter Biden was never charged in that scheme and later received a pardon from his father, then-President Joe Biden. Galanis said in a statement carried by InTouch that he feels deep gratitude to Trump for the mercy. E! Online adds a detail from Galanis’s past. Forbes called him “Porn’s New King” in 2004 after he bought the country’s largest processor of payments for internet porn.
Savannah Chrisley Answers the Backlash
The Chrisleys have a history with the same White House. Yahoo’s report on the 2025 pardon describes Todd and Julie as reality TV stars convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion. Their daughter now plans a family with a man who shared a prison with her father. A White House official addressed both clemency decisions in the same statement to TMZ.
Savannah posted a sonogram on Instagram Stories on October 27. She wrote that the baby is “not a headline,” according to E! Online. On the October 27 episode of her Unlocked podcast, she addressed the 27-year age gap directly. E! quotes her saying she would take 20 phenomenal years with someone over 50 mediocre ones.
She also said she kept much of the relationship quiet because she knows how harsh the public can be. E! reports that she described Galanis as someone who neither looks nor acts his age. The reports reviewed contain no comment from Galanis about the pregnancy and no statement from Todd or Julie Chrisley. E! does not include public or family reaction. Watch for any response from the Chrisley parents and for a wedding date. Also watch whether outlets settle the pardon-versus-commutation question, since the White House has so far spoken only through an unnamed official.
