* The ruling is here. From Fox32…
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, overturning two counts of lying to regulators.
Three years ago, Thompson, the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and grandson of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, was convicted on two counts of lying to regulators and five counts of felony tax fraud.
* SCOTUS Blog…
Although Thompson conceded that his statements regarding his loans may have been misleading, because he did not mention his second and third loans, he maintained that they were not false, because he said only that he had borrowed $110,000 – not that he only owed $110,000. And therefore, he contended, he did not violate the law.
The lower courts rejected that theory, but on Friday the Supreme Court agreed with Thompson that the law under which he was convicted applies only to statements that are false.
Roberts pointed first to the text of the law, emphasizing that it makes it a crime to knowingly make “any false statement or report.” The law does not, he observed, “use the word ‘misleading’” – even though “false and misleading are two different things.” Indeed, he added, because misstatements can sometimes be true, “it is significant that the statute uses only the word ‘false,’” which “means ‘not true.’” Therefore, he concluded, a “statement that is misleading but true is by definition not a ‘false statement.’”
Federal laws more broadly support this result, Roberts continued, because other laws – including some criminal laws – do use the word “misleading” when Congress wanted them to apply to misstatements. If the court were to interpret the law in this case to apply to misleading statements, Roberts noted, it would have been unnecessary for Congress to include the term “misleading” elsewhere in federal laws.
The court declined to weigh in on the federal government’s contention that Thompson’s conviction should still stand because his statements actually were false, rather than simply misleading. Neither the trial court nor the court of appeals addressed that argument, Roberts reasoned. But he added that “this question is the right one to ask,” and that “at least some context is relevant to determining whether a statement is false” under this law. When the case returns to the lower courts, Roberts suggested, they can consider “whether a reasonable jury could find that Thompson’s statements were false.”
The US Attorney’s office isn’t having a great six months. A mistrial was declared in the prosecution of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza in relation to the Madigan probe. They failed to convict former Speaker Michael Madigan on a host of charges, including what’s usually a slam-dunk RICO beef. And Mike McClain wasn’t convicted of anything during the same trial. And now this.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 12:38 pm:
Wasn’t even close. The decision unanimous and pretty straightforward. Glad to see the Feds hand slapped for such an over reach
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 12:45 pm:
The rules of what constitutes fraud and corruption have changed dramatically in recent years.
“Roberts pointed first to the text of the law, emphasizing that it makes it a crime to knowingly make “any false statement or report.”
I’m just a layman, but it seems like intentionally misleading statements, even if true, create a false report. Lucky for Thompson that the USSC is way smarter than I am.
- NotRich - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 12:48 pm:
Trump wasn’t wrong about the over reach of Federal prosecutors..
- Remember the Alamo II - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 12:52 pm:
You can’t convict someone of providing false information if the information is true. That seems like a no-brainer, but here we are.
- hisgirlfriday - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 1:05 pm:
Without getting too into the weeds, this ruling is yet another minder that the Roberts Court is the best friend prosecuted pols have ever had.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 1:08 pm:
Maybe they should take a break from going after Chicago politicians for a while…the good news is there is plenty of job security for them with suburban corruption!
- Felonious Gru - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 1:50 pm:
=== The US Attorney’s office isn’t having a great six months. ===
The Emil Jones III case is not looking great for the Feds either.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 1:56 pm:
===Trump wasn’t wrong about the over reach of Federal prosecutors..===
This isn’t federal prosecutors, this is a SCOTUS crusade going back to McNally vs. US (1987). Throw in the reasoning in the judicial decision reversing Ollie North’s convictions, and Madigan will walk free.
- Telly - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 2:25 pm:
== US Attorney’s office isn’t having a great six months ==
They have themselves to blame. Like it or not, the Supreme Court’s *unanimous* decisions to overturn the convictions of Virginia Governor McDonnell (2016) and the defendants in the New Jersey Bridgegate scandal (2020) set a higher bar for public corruption cases. The folks in the Dirksen Federal Building chose to largely ignore the precedent set by those decisions.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no sympathy for the unquestionably ethically challenged defendants, including Thompson and Madigan. But prosecutors are ethically required to only bring charges when they believe a conviction is likely, all the way through appeal. A first year law student could read the McDonnell and Bridgegate decisions and see the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois had climbed really far out on a limb on several recent cases. The limb is being sawed off.
- TNR - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 3:12 pm:
If he wasn’t a Daley, he would have never been prosecuted. Then again, if he wasn’t a Daley, the bank would never had given him that loan.
- Payback - Friday, Mar 21, 25 @ 3:48 pm:
“The US Attorney’s office isn’t having a great six months.” The Northern District isn’t having a great ten years. They have been weak since Patrick Fitzgerald left. I believe that is by design.
If there are any AUSAs who have some ambition, they should look at the other 18 counties in the Northern District. Investigating the rural combines would be like shooting fish in a barrel, they don’t hide their corruption.