A grand jury has indicted former
Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock on 24 criminal counts.
The charges, announced Thursday,
include wire fraud, theft of government funds and making false
statements.
“These charges allege that Mr. Schock
deliberately and repeatedly violated federal law, to his personal and
financial advantage,” Jim
Lewis, an attorney, told NPR. “Mr. Schock held public office
at the time of the alleged offenses, but public office does not
exempt him or anyone else from accountability for alleged intentional
misuse of public funds and campaign funds.”
Schock maintained his innocence during
a press conference.
“After the government realized there
was no crime, they chose to spend the next 19 months using two grand
juries and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to
manufacture a crime,” he said. “I intend to not only fight to
prove these allegations false but in the process expose this
investigation for what it was.”
Schock, 35, resigned from Congress last
year after the allegations surfaced.
Rumors that Schock – who consistently
voted against LGBT rights – may be gay have been attributed to his
colorful Instagram posts.
(Related: Aaron
Schock offered $1 million to appear in gay porn.)