Todd and Julie Chrisley’s Attorney Says There’s Still ‘Hope’ as Couple’s Sentences Get Reduced amid Appeal (Exclusive)

Todd and Julie Chrisley’s attorney is sharing his thoughts about the couple’s future following news that their prison sentences had been reduced.

Todd 54, and Julie, 50, were sentenced in November 2022 to a total of 19 years in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion. They reported to prison on Jan. 17, despite having appealed the case.

However, on Friday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate search system indicated that the Chrisley family patriarch will now be released nearly two years before his 12-year sentence was originally intended to finish, while Julie’s seven-year sentence was trimmed by 14 months.

Now, attorney Jay Surgent is addressing the news, telling PEOPLE that he’s hopeful the couple’s sentencing times will be reduced even more.

“They were able to get some time off for both of them,” Surgent says, adding that upcoming legal proceedings on Nov. 1 could trim even more time off. “There’s going to be the adoption of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, changes, modifications, recommendations for reduction of sentences for nonviolent offenders. So [I] don’t know at this point in time, but they should be getting two points a piece for that. So that’ll further reduce their sentences.”

Surgent says he is working with the Department of Justice on other matters related to the Chrisley couple’s appeal, but declined to specify further.

“There’s hope,” he notes. “There’s always hope, but I feel as though they have a strong appeal.”

Surgent previously revealed to PEOPLE in late July that new filings regarding Todd and Julie’s appeal process were submitted at the time.

“The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals can reverse the District Court, or they could remand the case back for hearings that should have been held that were not held during the course of this trial,” he explained. “We argued very vigorously that their constitutional rights have been violated, and that they basically were not given a fair hearing. It’s all in black and white, actually.”

The twosome’s other attorney, Alex Little, also said around in late July on Savannah Chrisley’s Unlocked podcast that “it’s going to be a hard lift, but in this case, we’ve got, you know, real legitimate substantive arguments that we think, you know, if the court takes fairly, has a very good shot of winning.”

In the meantime, Todd and Julie’s children have given updates on how they’ve been coping with prison. (Todd is currently serving at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola while Julie is at Federal Medical Center Lexington.)

“They’re hanging in there. It’s a terrible situation,” their son Chase Chrisley recently told Extra. “The conditions [of their prisons] are awful and if you read all these headlines they say the polar opposite, but it is not the truth and we’re going to be spreading a lot of awareness to that as well.”

But Savannah, 26, said she still has “so much hope” for her parents despite the hardship they’ve faced.

“I know that they’re going through what they’re going through for us to make a difference, for us to make a change,” she previously said on her podcast. “Because whether this appeal works or not, they’re still coming out with a story.”