Todd Chrisley says someone in prison photographed him sleeping and sent it to his daughter demanding $2,600 a month for ‘protection’

Todd Chrisley opened up about life behind bars for the first time since he began a prison sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion in an interview with NewsNation’s Brian Entin.

Entin spoke with the 54-year-old who, along with his wife Julie Chrisley, 50, was convicted last year of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million and hiding money from the IRS. Together, they were given a combined 19-year sentence.

In the conversation, which was conducted over the phone and with the help of Chrisley’s lawyer, the TV star claimed that he was the victim of a blackmail plot at his minimum-security prison.

“There was a photograph taken of me while I was sleeping and sent to my daughter asking for $2,600 a month for my protection,” he said.

Chrisley’s lawyer, Jay Surgent, made a similar claim while speaking to TMZ in July, stating that Todd believed someone had photographed him while he was sleeping. He did not mention that one of Chrisley’s children had been sent a photo.

Chrisley is currently incarcerated at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida, where he’s carrying out a 12-year sentence — although this has been reduced by two years.

Chrisley also said in the interview that there were recordings of prison staff members discussing how they wanted to humble him by putting him in “diesel therapy” and in “shackles” and “let him ride around the country for a time.”

He also claimed that the food he and other inmates were being given was past expiration and was kept in a storage facility where rats, squirrels, and a dead cat had been spotted.

“It is so disgustingly filthy,” he said. “It’s out of date by, at minimum, a year. It’s a year past expiration. And they are literally starving these men to death here. These men are getting … I don’t know if they’re getting a thousand calories a day.”

Chrisley said he got around having to eat the food by purchasing pasta, tuna, and peanut butter at the commissary, although he stated that the warden had recently reduced the amounts inmates were allowed to buy.

“She had not given a reason,” Chrisley said. “When I asked her about it, she said commissary is a privilege, not a right.”

NewsNation said it reached out to the prison, which said that there was “nutritious food” and that the facilities were up to date.