by Luke Sprinkel
The Minnesota Campaign Finance Board (CFB) filed a lawsuit in September against former Rep. John Thompson, a Democrat, claiming he is liable to pay $4,250 to the CFB for a series of campaign finance violations. As such, the lawsuit seeks $4,250 in damages.
According to the CFB, former Rep. Thompson committed multiple violations of campaign finance law. Among the violations listed by the CFB, Thompson failed to file various campaign finance reports that are required by law. Additionally, CFB claims that Thompson accepted political donations that exceeded statutory limits. The Center of the American Experiment first reported on the lawsuit Saturday, noting that Thompson also has several unpaid fines in other court cases.
Of the $4,250 allegedly owed to the CFB, $2,550 of it is a mixture of penalties and late-filing fees that Thompson (pictured above) is being asked to pay. The remaining $1,700 sought in damages involves a series of unlawful campaign contributions.
This most recent development marks the newest chapter in the continuing saga of John Thompson that first began in the summer of 2020.
As the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) nominee for a St. Paul seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Thompson spoke at a protest in Hugo, Minn., on Aug. 15. That protest was outside the home of the then-president of the Minneapolis police officers union, Bob Kroll. At this protest, Thompson verbally abused residents of the neighborhood, beat an effigy of Kroll’s wife, and said, “You think we give a f– about burning Hugo down?”
After winning election to the Minnesota House in November 2020, Rep. Thompson was expelled from the DFL caucus of the Minnesota House of Representatives in September of 2021 after allegations of domestic abuse, violence, and terroristic threats received widespread media attention.
These allegations were first reported by Alpha News in August of 2020, but they did not become the subject of public intrigue until July of 2021 after Thompson was pulled over by police.
The resulting scrutiny into Thompson’s alleged conduct led members of his own party to ask for his resignation. Despite such calls, then-Rep. Thompson stayed in the Minnesota House of Representatives, caucusing as a independent after his expulsion from the DFL caucus.
In August of 2022, Thompson lost renomination to his St. Paul legislative seat in the DFL primary. Liz Lee defeated Thompson by roughly 78 points.
Since his departure from the Minnesota House, former Rep. Thompson’s son, Derrick, was charged with multiple counts of criminal vehicular manslaughter for killing five people in a crash that occurred on June 16, 2023.
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Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and Saudi Arabia. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
