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CHICAGO (AP) - Former Gov. James R. Thompson suffered through five seemingly endless hours on the witness stand Wednesday as defense attorneys ripped in into his performance as a director of media mogul Conrad Black's Hollinger newspaper conglomerate.
Thompson, a week short of his 71st birthday, sat glumly, answering in monosyllables at times, as a team of veteran criminal defense lawyers bombarded him with questions far more searching than anything he was used to at news conferences in 14 years as governor of Illinois.
They asked dozens of questions about his admission Tuesday that as a Hollinger director he skimmed documents rather than reading carefully and thus failed to notice repeated references to $15.6 million in payments now at the core of Black's federal racketeering trial.
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