Once a rising Republican star, former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s fall from grace began with stories of his lavish tastes, including the extravagant remodeling of his Washington office inspired by the British TV series “Downton Abbey.” After he resigned in 2015 amid a federal investigation, Schock of Peoria, Il, was hit with a sweeping criminal indictment alleging he used his government and campaign funds as a personal piggy bank — with expenditures ranging from private jets and skybox tickets at Soldier Field to handing out exorbitant bonuses and paying for travel to get a haircut, the Chicago Tribune reports.
On Wednesday, in a surprise move, federal prosecutors in Chicago said they had agreed to drop all charges against Schock in a “deferred prosecution.” Under the deal, Schock, 37, must pay back taxes to the IRS and $68,000 to his congressional campaign funds. If he stays out of any new trouble, prosecutors would drop all felony counts in September, leaving Schock with a clean record. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly approved the deal after prosecutors said they had taken a fresh look at the charges and decided this would be a “fair and just” outcome. Shock accused federal prosecutor Timothy Bass of pursuing the case to advance his own career. “I do feel like I’ve been wronged … by a prosecutor who saw me as his ticket to stardom,” Schock said. Schock’s attorney, George Terwilliger, said, “We felt all along that if some reasonable prosecutor would sit down and objectively look at the facts here, they would come to the same conclusions that we did … that mistakes are not crimes.” Schock was charged in a 24-count 2016 indictment with wire fraud, mail fraud, theft of government funds, making false statements, filing false reports with federal election officials and filing false tax returns.