Reality star Savannah Chrisley will speak tonight, likely about her incarcerated parents : NPR

For more updates from the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, head to the NPR Network’s live updates page.

One of tonight’s scheduled speakers is Savannah Chrisley, who comes not from the world of politics but reality television.

Chrisley, 26, has appeared on the teen pageant circuit, season 11 of The Masked Singer and the movie Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, among others.

She is probably best known, however, for Chrisley Knows Best, a USA Network show about her wealthy southern family. The show, which aired from 2014 to 2023, focused primarily on her parents, real-estate tycoon Todd Chrisley and his wife Julie.

But Todd and Julie were accused of funding their lavish lifestyle through dishonest means, and in June 2022 were found guilty on federal charges including bank fraud and tax evasion.

A jury found the couple guilty of conspiring to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans, among other counts, according to the AP.

Prosecutors alleged they submitted fake documents to banks when applying for loans, and used a company they controlled to hide income to keep the IRS from collecting unpaid taxes owed by Todd.

Their accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States and willfully filing false tax returns.

Todd and Julie were ordered to pay millions in restitution, and were sentenced to 12 and seven years, respectively. They reported to prison in January 2023.

Their sentences were reduced several months later to 10 and 5 years each. Federal appeals judges threw Julie’s sentence out entirely this past June over a calculation issue and sent the case back to a lower court for re-sentencing.

Savannah, who hosts a podcast called “Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley,” has since spoken out about the hardships associated with her parents’ incarceration, from taking on guardianship of her younger brother and niece to the living conditions they are facing in prison.

“The heat index was 105-110 degrees, and there’s no air conditioning outside the visitation room,” she said earlier this month, about the Kentucky facility where Julie is living. “Mom said she got physically sick from the heat. It’s beyond inhumane.”

Savannah is slated to speak on the night of the convention dedicated to safety, including criminal justice.

She told FOX Business this week that her speech will discuss the U.S. Department of Justice, which she described as “so broken that the only option we have is to completely deconstruct it and build it back.”

This reporting originally appeared as part of the NPR Network’s live coverage of the RNC.