CHICAGO _ An attorney for former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said a federal indictment against his client is expected Thursday.
Schock, 35, resigned from Congress on March 31, 2015, amid a federal criminal probe into how he spent campaign dollars and his $1 million-plus annual office budget.
On the same day, the Illinois congressman was served with a subpoena outside his Peoria home by three federal agents. The subpoena told him to appear before the grand jury and turn over large number of records from the previous five years
In a statement, Schock attorney George Terwilliger gave no details on the indictment.
"The indictment will look bad," Terwilliger said in the statement. But he went on to accused federal prosecutors of "made-up allegations of criminal activating arising from unintentional errors."
"These charges are the culmination of an effort to find something, anything, to take down Aaron Schock," Terwilliger said.
The spending scandal that led to Schock's downfall began with what might have been a tempest in a teapot: He had his congressional office redecorated with a "Downton Abbey" motif.
An Illinois designer was paid for the work, but one of Schock's aides tried to cover up the payment. Soon the press began detailing the lawmaker's far-flung trips, heavy reliance on private aircraft and habit of overbilling the government for auto mileage.
In a statement, Schock said Thursday that federal investigators spent "19 months, using two grand juries and millions of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to manufacture a crime."
"I simply cannot believe it has come to this," Schock said in the statement. "I intend to not only prove these allegations false, but in the process expose this investigation for what it was."
