Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley of The USA Network’s “Chrisley Knows Best” said on Instagram that God will be their lawyer and defend them against federal fraud charges.

Bruce Morris (Photo: Reann Huber/Pool photo/AJC)

But just in case they need extra help, the couple also tapped veteran Atlanta criminal defense attorney Bruce Morris to defend them against a 12-count indictment handed down Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Atlanta.

Co-defendant Peter Tarantino, the Chrisleys’ accountant, has recruited Daniel Griffin, a partner at Miller & Martin in Atlanta and a veteran former federal prosecutor and white collar criminal defense attorney. Much of Griffin’s defense work stays under the radar. He has represented more than 30 clients who were targets of federal criminal investigations but where no charges were ultimately filed, according to the law firm’s website.

The Chrisleys pleaded not guilty in a first appearance in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Wednesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Janet King. They have been released on a $100,000 signature bond.

“We’ve done nothing wrong,” Chrisley said on Monday in a lengthy Instagram post that presaged the indictment.

In that post, Chrisley claimed the indictment was based on a complaint by a disgruntled ex-employee who Chrisley said he fired and later “took to court” for stealing.

Chrisley claimed on Instagram the ex-employee “took a bunch of phony documents to the U.S. attorney’s office and told them we had committed all kinds of financial crimes.”

Chrisley said  prosecutors originally decided the ex-employee’s claims were “a bunch of nonsense” and  “sent him on his way. But, according to Chrisley, instead of giving up his alleged vendetta, the ex-employee allegedly “persuaded a different set of investigators not only to reopen the case but also to grant him immunity from prosecution for his own crimes and bring charges” against the Chrisleys.

Citing the Bible’s book of Jeremiah, Chrisley said, “God says to us … ’I will defend you. I will be your lawyer. I will plead your case.’”

The Chrisleys lived in the north Atlanta suburbs when the family embarked on a reality television career in 2014. They later moved to the Nashville area. Chrisley promoted himself as a wealthy real estate magnate, even though he filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

“Just because you are rich and you have your own TV show does not mean the law is not going to come get you when you commit a federal crime,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said Tuesday after announcing the indictment. “Justice should be the same for all. It doesn’t matter if you’re famous or you have thousands or millions of followers. The facts are the facts. And if you did the crime, we look forward to bringing you to justice.”

“The Chrisleys are innocent of all of the charges. The government has been misled by a former employee who the Chrisleys fired and sued.” A partner at Atlanta’s Finestone, Morris & White, Morris has more than 40 years of criminal trial experience and has handled the criminal defense of some of the state’s highest profile defendants.

They include:

• Adam L. Smith. Smith, an attorney and former chief procurement officer for the city of Atlanta, was sentenced in 2018 to 27 months in prison for taking more than $40,000 in a bribery conspiracy stemming from an ongoing federal corruption investigation at Atlanta City Hall. Morris was co-counsel with Atlanta defense lawyer Brian Steel.
• John Butters. Morris teamed up with Marietta attorney Jimmy Berry in their successful defense of former Cobb County Assistant District Attorney John Butters last year.  Butters, Atlanta attorney David Cohen and their client, Mye Brindle, were acquitted of violating the state’s unlawful surveillance law, a felony, in the making of a secret sex tape that recorded Brindle sexually servicing Waffle House Chairman Joe Rogers Jr. when she was his housekeeper.
• DeKalb County Deputy Police Chief Donald Frank. Frank was sentenced to 43 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to engaging in a bribery conspiracy in which he used his position to act as a private enforcer for a local businessman in return for thousands of dollars in cash and all-expense-paid gambling trips.
• Peter Manown, former vice president of gun manufacturer Glock. Manown was sentenced to 10 years probation after he pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from the company while based in its North American  headquarters.
• Phillip E. Hill Sr. Hill was the onetime owner of at least a dozen Atlanta-based real estate holding companies that bought and sold luxury homes and condominiums in a string of deals totaling more than $80 million that all ended in foreclosure. Hill, who was indicted with 18 other defendants on multiple bank fraud charges in 2005, was sentenced to life after a 2007 trial.
• Norbert “Norby” Calder. In a federal racketeering case that mirrored “The Sopranos,” Morris defended the former manager of a defunct Atlanta strip club that catered to celebrities, professional athletes and other prominent clientele, and that was allegedly linked to the Gambino crime family in New York. Calder was sentenced to three years probation for withholding information on a crime.

In the Chrisley case, the indictment accuses the couple of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and multiple fraud counts in an alleged scheme to defraud multiple financial institutions. The indictment alleges that as far back as 2007, the couple fabricated bank statements, personal financial statements, invoices, and audits in order to secure millions of dollars in loans.

At one point, Todd Chrisley directed one unnamed co-conspirator to “create [financial statements] like you always have” or he wouldn’t be able to secure the loans he sought, the indictment alleges.

The indictment alleges that when the Chrisleys, who filed for bankruptcy in 2012, couldn’t repay the outstanding loans or secure new ones, they tried to shift the blame to the unnamed co-conspirator.

Tarantino, owner of Roswell accounting firm CPA Tarantino, is charged along with the Chrisleys of conspiring to defraud the IRS. Tarantino began working for the Chrisleys in 2015 and allegedly provided false and misleading information to the IRS about unpaid back taxes owed by the couple, and ownership of at least one of the couple’s businesses, according to the indictment. Tarantino is also accused of lying to the FBI when he allegedly claimed he didn’t know how Todd Chrisley made his money.

Griffin couldn’t be reached for comment.