(MCT) — CHICAGO — Jesse Jackson Jr.’s final act as a public official was to send a Thanksgiving eve resignation letter to the speaker of the House in which he declared that “for 17 years I have given 100 percent of my time, energy and life to public service.”

But federal prosecutors revealed an image of Jackson as less a public servant and more a politician interested in surrounding himself with treasures. A gold-plated Rolex. Furs and cashmere capes. Memorabilia from Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. Luxuries out of the reach of the many people trying to stay above the poverty line in Jackson’s former South Side congressional district.