Federal prosecutors sought to undermine the notion that Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson had forgotten about $109,000 he received from abank or that he didn’t pay attention to his tax returns during closing arguments in his trial Monday.
Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson listens during the Cook County Democratic Committee slating meeting, Dec. 14, 2021, at IBEW Local 134. Thompson is the first sitting alderperson to face trial on federal charges in more than two decades. He is also the first member of his storied political family to go on trial.
A jury of four men and eight women heard roughly three-and-a-half days of testimony in Thompson’s trial last week, mostly from government witnesses. The trial began nine months after the feds hit Thompson with an indictment charging him with two counts of lying to regulators and five counts of filing false federal income tax returns.
Meanwhile, after Washington Federal failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. handed Thompson’s loan over to Planet Home Lending. Thompson was too frazzled, disorganized and busy to pay attention to the interest forms or his tax returns, his lawyers say.
Not shocking at all