In a court filing Friday, prosecutors
investigating former Illinois Representative Aaron Schock denied
claims that they asked witnesses whether he's gay.
Last month, Schock's lawyers submitted
a 92-page filing in which they accused investigators of prosecutorial
misconduct.
The “prosecutor and agents have dug
into every aspect of Mr. Schock's life by any means necessary,” the
lawyers wrote. “No topic has been off limits. The federal
government has even delved, repeatedly, into the most intimate
details of his life, including repeated inquiries to witnesses into
who he has slept with and whether he is gay.”
According to Politico, the
prosecution team has denied investigating Schock's sexuality.
“We fully agree with Defendant Schock
that his sexuality is completely irrelevant in this criminal matter,”
the
team wrote. “It was not of interest to the government, and the
government did not inquire about it.”
Schock, a Republican who last year was
indicted on 24 criminal counts, including wire fraud, theft of
government funds and making false statements, has previously denied
rumors – attributed mostly to his colorful Instagram posts – that
he's gay. Schock, who has suggested the investigation was a witch
hunt, resigned from Congress in 2015.
Investigators acknowledged probing into
his relationship with Panamanian diplomat and attorney Karla
Gonzalez, whom he dated. They said they needed to establish the
nature of their relationship because their travel expenses were
listed as a campaign expense.
“Out of the approximately 116 witness
interview reports during the investigation and since the indictment,
only 4 contain any references to Defendant Schock's sexuality, and
those references were initiated by the witness, not the government,”
investigators wrote. “Defendant Schock's attempts to attribute
misconduct on the part of the government based on an issue that he
himself admits pre-dated the grand jury investigation is simply
meritless.”
Schock's trial is scheduled to begin
next January.