Todd Chrisley has been hit with a federal defamation lawsuit for allegedly waging a campaign of harassment that amounted to a 'vendetta' against a Georgia tax official who worked on his case, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

The beleaguered reality TV star and his wife Julie, 49, are currently facing prison terms of 12 and seven years respectively, having been found guilty of tax evasion and multiple fraudulent loan claims totaling $30million.

Now, DailyMail.com has learned that Chrisley, 53, was slapped with the defamation lawsuit on Monday, November 21 - the very day he was sentenced. 

The complaint was filed by former Georgia Department of Revenue (GDOR) Special Agent Amy Doherty-Heinze, who claims Chrisley 'falsely and maliciously accused' her of criminal conduct on his podcast and social media after the agency began investigating him. 

Former Georgia Department of Revenue (GDOR) Special Agent Amy Doherty-Heinze, pictured right, has launched a federal defamation lawsuit against Todd Chrisley, accusing him of waging a campaign of harassment against her on social media and on his podcast 

The reality TV star, 53, and his wife Julie, 49, were sentenced to a combined prison time of 19 years last month after being convicted on multiple counts of tax evasion and fraud

A source told DailyMail.com: 'He had managed to dodge being served until then, but they finally got him at Atlanta's Federal Courthouse when he showed up for sentencing.'

The complaint obtained by DailyMail.com accuses Chrisley of 'innumerable' false and defamatory statements against Special Agent Amy Doherty-Heinze in 'an explicit effort' to have her Georgia Peace Officer Standard and Training Council (POST) certificate revoked.

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It is the second suit filed by Doherty-Heinze whose first filing is still pending and was made earlier this year after a demand that Chrisley retract a host of defamatory statements fell on deaf ears.

Among the numerous alleged falsehoods aired by Chrisley and highlighted in both suits are the claims that:

• Doherty-Heinze stole thousands of dollars from the GDOR evidence room; 
• Went to Disneyland on the taxpayers' dime; 
• Generated false case numbers to illegally run the plates of his and family members' vehicles; 
• Had an extramarital affair with her then boss, the Director of GDOR's Office of Special Investigations, Joshua Waites;
• Made a sex tape with him and one other colleague.

Chrisley also claimed that during Doherty-Heinze's time as a deputy with Clayton County Sheriff's Department, before she joined GDOR, she had 'killed a young African American male,' in an incident that he described as 'preventable.'

Doherty-Heinze worked for Georgia's Department of Revenue, which pursued the tax fraud claims against him. The lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, points to several Facebook posts in which Chrisley made a host of allegedly defamatory statements against the state official 

In a post published on July 6, 2020, Chrisley accused Doherty-Heinze of criminal conduct and urged his friends and followers to file a complaint against her 

The suit claims Chrisley falsely accused Doherty-Heinze of misconduct in an 'explicit effort' to have her Georgia Peace Officer Standard and Training Council (POST) certificate revoked

'Amy's partner had been shot and she was returning fire. The shooting was found to be entirely justified. The way Chrisley characterized it is just wrong,' a well-placed source said. 

In his sworn deposition, made earlier this year and seen by DailyMail.com, Chrisley was forced to admit that he does not possess any sex tape, nor could not produce any evidence to substantiate his claims that Doherty-Heinze was 'a crook' who had acted in any way illegally.

DailyMail.com has learned that Doherty-Heinze's sister works for Disneyland and provided her with free passes to the park on the day Chrisley claimed taxpayers footed the bill.

Chrisley also publicly accused Doherty-Heinze of having an affair with her then boss, the Director of GDOR's Office of Special Investigations, Joshua Waites (pictured) 

Both she and Waites vehemently deny that they had an affair or made any sex tape and Chrisley has produced no evidence to back up the claims that they did.

Georgia Department of Revenue began its investigation into the Chrisleys in 2017 though, DailyMail.com has been told, the couple had been on the department's 'radar' for considerably longer.

Almost immediately Chrisley began posting defamatory material on Instagram where he has 2.3million followers and sharing it as fact on his podcast, 'Chrisley Confessions.'

His primary targets were Waites and Doherty-Heinze, whom he singled out as a close ally of Waites, though her role in the investigation was minor.

An absence of evidence didn't deter the disgraced showman from publicly claiming to have uncovered proof of systemic corruption.

The source said: 'Chrisley went after anyone he thought was close to Waites in a bid to push this narrative that the investigation and the whole department was corrupt and had acted illegally.'

Speaking on his podcast in July 2020 he claimed: 'We're going to release information in September as to what we know to be factual that has gone on in the GDOR…these are law enforcement officers within the GDOR, people that have a badge, that carry a gun, that have POST certification, that are lying, cheating, stealing that are committing felonies.' 

In an Instagram post from March 9, 2020, Chrisley suggested she landed her job because of her alleged relationship with Waites 

He also accused her of going to Disneyland on the taxpayers' dime. Amy's sister later commented on the post defending her sibling and denying the allegations 

The lawsuit is the second filed by Doherty-Heinze, whose first filing is still pending and was made earlier this year after Chrisley allegedly refused to retract his statements

DailyMail.com has learned that Chrisley was slapped with the defamation lawsuit the very day he was sentenced on Monday November 21

Then, in September that year, though he had offered up none of the promised proof, Chrisley claimed: 'We are now in receipt of several emails between two GDOR employees and someone outside of the GDOR… [that show] these people trying to take me and my family down. Lying, breaking federal law, manipulating emails, changing federal documents…'

To date Chrisley has not produced a shred of evidence to support any of these allegations despite repeated public claims to have seen it or to possess it.

But that didn't stop him posting contact details where, he told his listeners and followers, they could call for Doherty-Heinze and others to be stripped of their badges.

On Episode 133 of his podcast, which aired April 28, 2021, he claimed that GDOR officers were motivated by jealousy.

'They look at people who have financially more than what they have or have a nicer home, or drive a nicer car, or wear nicer clothing, the resentment sets in and they're like, 'I want that. I want what they have,' he said at the time. 

In truth, the prosecution at the Chrisleys' federal trial showed the life that the couple presented for public consumption was a sham.

Across multiple, now canceled, TV shows including his debut, 'Chrisley Knows Best,' Chrisley promoted himself as a family man who had made his fortune in real estate.

He has been married to second wife, Julie, for 26 years and has three children with her – Savanna 25, Chase, 24 and Grayson, 16 – as well as Lindsie, 32 and Kyle, 30 from his marriage to first wife Teresa.

Chrisley and Julie adopted Kyle's daughter Chloe, 10, as her now separated parents struggled with addiction and mental health problems.

Presiding over this blended family, Chrisley was at pains to present himself as a man who has built his empire on faith, family and financial acumen. 

Todd, 53, and Julie Chrisley (pictured in a court sketch during sentencing) were sentenced to 12 and seven years in prison, respectively, in November after they were found guilty in their $30million tax fraud case 

On his USA series Chrisley Knows Best, Chrisley has documented his life as a dedicated father to his and Julie's five children Lindsie, 32; Kyle, 30; Chase, 25; Savannah, 24; and Grayson, 16

But the reality is that the bible-bashing patriarch's clan was riven with dispute and estrangement, while his extravagant lifestyle represented nothing but a mountain of debt. 

Interviewed by DailyMail.com back in 2014, Kyle described his father as 'toxic' and 'a snake,' while Lindsie has fallen in and out of her father's favor over the years.

Meanwhile their mother, Teresa, has told DailyMail.com that she believes Chloe should now be returned to the care of the child's father or her aunt, Lindsie, and not taken in by half-sibling Savanna who has stated that she will take custody.

Chrisley's business life has been no less fraught. Documents filed across the years show repeated bankruptcies, most notably a $50million filing back in 2012.

But Chrisley's ultimate undoing came in the form of his ex-business partner, Mark Braddock. 

In a sensational turn of events he testified against his former partner in return for immunity and revealed that the men had a year-long affair in the early 2000s.

Braddock stated under oath that he was not only witness to Chrisley's numerous frauds, he also took part in them.

According to one well-placed source, 'Chrisley is just the worst human being. He's toxic. He's been trying to use his fan and his social media platforms and podcast to prop up this narrative that he and Julie were the victims here and that investigators acted illegally and came at them for no reason.

'If a psychologist analyzed Todd Chrisley the first word they'd come up with is narcissist.

'He's not a victim. He's just lucky he wasn't caught sooner.'

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