Prosecutors deny investigating former congressman’s sexuality

The prosecution team investigating former congressman Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) for illegally profiting from his elected office is denying accusations of investigating Schock’s sexuality as part of the probe.

Prosecutors rejected claims by Schock’s attorneys that they had improperly inquired into the former congressman’s personal life in a court filing on Friday. 

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Politico first reported on the filing. 

The defense claimed that the prosecution improperly asked witnesses questions about Schock’s personal life and asked that the case be dismissed. The defense at the time admitted there “has long been speculative gossip in the media about Mr. Schock’s sexual orientation.” 

“We fully agree with Defendant Schock that his sexuality is completely irrelevant in this criminal matter,” wrote prosecutors Timothy Bass and Eugene Miller in the federal court filing. “It was not of interest to the government, and the government did not inquire about it.”

They acknowledged that several witnesses brought up Schock’s sexuality.

“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 by the government,” Bass and Miller 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,” they said in the filing, which asks that the court deny the motion to dismiss the case.

The former congressman has pled not guilty to the charges, which included allegations of inflating mileage reimbursements for profit and additional improper use of the House allowance and campaign funds. Schock’s attorneys have blamed the charges on improper bookkeeping practices. 

Schock resigned in March 2015.