BURSTThe Supreme Court Friday unanimously sided with a Chicago political scion in his criminal appeal, agreeing an anti-corruption law barring lying to regulators only covers false statements, not misleading ones.
Patrick Daley Thompson, a member of Chicago’s most famous political dynasty, was convicted in 2022 of lying to regulators about the amount he borrowed from a now-defunct bank and already served a 4-month sentence.
In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices sent the case back to a lower court for another look at Thompson’s charges, since he argues his statements were merely misleading.
“In casual conversation, people use many overlapping words to describe shady statements: false, misleading, dishonest, deceptive, literally true, and more. Only one of those words appears in the statute,” Roberts wrote.
“Section 1014 does not criminalize statements that are misleading but true. Under the statute, it is not enough that a statement is misleading. It must be ‘false,’” he continued.
The anti-corruption law Thompson was convicted of violating bars making false statements to influence certain government agencies and financial institutions. He also was convicted on tax charges that remain in place and weren’t at issue before the high court.
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