The Former Congressman Who Got Charged With 22 Felonies For Spending $35,000 On His Downton Abbey Themed Office Will Not Go To Prison

CHICAGO (WLS) — Federal prosecutors have agreed to drop charges against former Congressman Aaron Schock in a bombshell new court agreement. It’s a stunning change in events for the former Peoria Congressman’s case. The one-time rising star of the Illinois Republican Party resigned his Congressional seat in 2015 on accusations of misspending campaign funds on lavish personal expenses. In federal court Wednesday, government prosecutors agreed to defer the case in order for Schock to admit his wrongdoings, reimburse funds related to the case and cooperate with the IRS. The developments are an embarrassing day for the Justice Department, where Schock is now off the hook for multiple felonies.

Alright no surprise here this story falls right in Barstool Chicago’s wheelhouse. We love going deep on the reality tv corruption that plagues our very existence. And in this case, Aaron Schock checks a lot of boxes. You can recap most of the damage here.

The short end of it is that Schock was a rising superstar in the Republic Party winning a central IL House seat in 2008 at age 27. He went on to win 3 more Congressional elections by an average of 72-28%. Everyone loved this guy and for good reason: he brought George W. to town for a campaign speech, he was pro-farmer, dynamic influencer and of course a Washington heart throb.

That’s a real magazine cover from when people bought magazines. The crazy thing is it wasn’t that crazy. Schock loved the spotlight even making regular appearances on TMZ. Elected to represent his constituents’ collective interest in federal happenings and he’s posing for a new Tinder header. In a sense I guess that is being a man of the people. God Bless America.

Anyways, Schock got in the jackpot with Watchdogs when it was reported he redecorated his congressional office to vibe with PBS’s smash hit Downton Abbey. Vanity Fair has the juicy details

You see, when [the reporter] entered the office of the Illionois representative, he was met by a woman who introduced herself as Annie Brahler, the interior designer tasked with fashioning Schock’s work space. Brahler, who presumably was not approved to speak to press, volunteered to give the Washington Post reporter a tour of Schock’s personal office. Brahler went on-record explaining how she came to work with the congressman and how the room was inspired by the PBS drama.

Downton Abbey’s actually a v. solid show so I’m not going to drag the guy for tuning in. Same time, you can’t be smart enough to win a congressional election then do this to your office space with $35,000 of federally protected money:

I know politicians are generally weird people, but this is extremely fucked up. For like $350 I was able to get the Barstool Chicago office together and that comfortably fits 4 very, very grown men. This dumpster fire looks like the Kool Aid man just moved in, took a dump everywhere and brought all the uncomfortable furniture with. For obvious reasons, a lot of people were pissed off when this story came out. More allegations followed like dropping $75k of campaign money on a new Tahoe and hiring a personal instagram photographer to follow him around permanently.

Shortly after Schock resigned and he’s been dragged around by Federal prosecutors ever since. You imagine this will be hard to bounce back from regardless of prison time. Sad story until you remember he was basically stealing from a farming community. If it gets worse than that let me know I’ll be over here supporting agriculture.