Congressman who spent money to make his office look like Downton Abbey to be indicted

Former Republican Illinois congressman Aaron Schock, 35, is expected to be indicted by a federal grand jury, The Associated Press reports, following a spending scandal involving real estate deals, extensive travel, and remodeling his Capitol Hill office to look like a Downton Abbey set. Schock resigned in 2015 after the reports of improper spending and questionable reimbursements came to the surface.

"This indictment will look bad, but underneath it is just made-up allegations of criminal activity arising from unintentional administrative errors," Schock's attorney, George Terwilliger, said in a statement. "These charges are the culmination of an effort to find something, anything, to take down Aaron Schock."

Schock said in his own statement Thursday that "we might have made errors among a few of the thousands and thousands of financial transactions we conducted, but they were honest mistakes — no one intended to break any law."

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The indictment will end a 19-month investigation into Schock's spending.