In a stunning embarrassment to the feds, the public corruption case against Ex-Rep. Aaron Schock ended Wednesday with a deferred prosecution agreement, with no criminal convictions against him, while his campaign committee pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
Schock appeared in a federal courthouse in Chicago Wednesday morning, where U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly approved a deal to put Schock’s public corruption case on hold for six months. If Schock holds up his end of the bargain, prosecutors will dismiss the charges against him. If he doesn’t, the feds can go after him for any crime.
Under the agreement, Schock has to reimburse his campaign committee $68,000. He has to pay outstanding taxes from 2010 to 2015, as well as admit certain facts, including that he failed to accurately report mileage.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Hogstrom called the deal with Schock a “fair and sensible resolution to this matter.” He said Schock is taking “appropriate public accountability for his conduct.” He also noted that Schock has resigned his office and has no criminal history.
In a statement, Schock said he was pleased with the outcome of the case and while noting that mistakes were made in his campaign and congressional offices, “mistakes are not crimes.”
“The outcome validates this case should have never been started in the first place,” Schock said in the statement. Schock said he intended on meeting the terms of his agreement with the feds.
Schock praised federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois, who had recently taken over the case, for moving it toward its outcome Wednesday, but questioned why the case had to drag on for so long.
“It should not have taken four years, two U.S. attorney’s offices, three judges and millions of dollars in costs to the taxpayers and myself to come to this conclusion,” Schock said in the statement. “Justice wielded irresponsibly is wrong, and it puts our constitutional rights at risk.”
The criminal case that made national headlines, sunk Schock’s once meteoric career in Congress and stretched out for several years ended Wednesday with a whimper.
Later in the same courtroom, Schock’s campaign committee pleaded guilty through an official to a misdemeanor in a criminal information. Kennelly fined the campaign committee $26,553.
Schock for Congress pleaded guilty to failing “to maintain vouchers, worksheets, receipts, bills or accounts that would provide in sufficient detail the necessary information and data from which fiIed reports and statements of Schock for Congress could be verified, explained, clarified, and checked for accuracy and completeness.”
The case against Schock himself began in the Central District of Illinois but since made its way to Chicago’s federal courthouse.
Indicted on Nov. 10, 2016, the feds had accused Schock of serious charges — using campaign and government funds for cars, mileage, reimbursements, interior decorating, a charter flight to a Bears game and sports tickets he sold for profit.
Schock was also accused of filing false income tax returns and covering up his spending trail and alleged fraud schemes with fake invoices and false statements.
Until his downfall, Schock was a rising Republican political star in Congress and mentioned in Illinois politics as a potential governor or senatorial candidate.
The telegenic Schock grew prominent through his frequent television hits and his flair for posting pictures from his travels on social media accounts and showing off his six-pack abs on a Men’s Health cover.
When he arrived at the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009 at the age of 27, he was the youngest member of Congress at the time. Schock represented a central Illinois district that took in parts of Peoria, where he lived.
After the U.S. attorney’s office based in Springfield launched its probe in mid-March 2015, Schock resigned under a cloud of suspicion March 31, 2015.
Since leaving Congress, Schock, 37, has divided his time between Peoria and Los Angeles, where he has worked in real estate development.
Schock’s trial had been set for June 10. However, he has already taken an appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, insisting his prosecution violates the constitutional separation of powers.
Though the Supreme Court refused last month to hear his appeal, a statement from Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the question he raised may not be fully resolved. That question, specifically, is whether the judicial branch should be allowed to interpret rules adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sotomayor’s comment may have given Schock optimism about bringing his case back to the high court if convicted at trial.
“Although this question does not arise frequently — presumably because criminal charges against Members of Congress are rare — the sensitive separation-of-powers questions that such prosecutions raise ought to be handled uniformly,” Sotomayor wrote last month as she concurred with the decision not to hear Schock’s case. “It is not clear, however, that this case cleanly presents the question whether such orders are, as a general matter, immediately appealable.”
That’s because the district court denied a motion to dismiss Schock’s case only provisionally, promising to revisit the matter “if at any time it becomes apparent that the prosecution will rely upon evidence that requires the interpretation of House rules,” she wrote.
