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The federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former Rep. Aaron Schock leveled an unusual public complaint Tuesday that he was misled by a prosecutor on the case.

Judge Colin Bruce, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, also ordered the prosecution to conduct a review of all its court filings in the matter for potential inaccuracies.

Bruce concluded that the lead prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass, gave inaccurate information to the court when he appeared to deny that prosecutors told grand jurors that Schock, a former Illinois Republican congressman, had been subpoenaed to the grand jury but declined to appear.

The acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois, Patrick Hansen, disclosed in a court filing last month that prosecutors discussed Schock’s possible testimony or decision not to testify on a total of 11 occasions with two grand juries. Hansen defended the prosecution’s actions as proper and said most of the episodes came in response to queries from grand jurors who seemed eager to hear from Schock.

In a three-page order Tuesday, Bruce indicated he was troubled by what he viewed as a “changed … position” by the government on what grand jurors were — and were not — told.

“The recent revelation puts this court in a somewhat difficult position as it is now aware that it was misled by the Government,” wrote Bruce, an appointee of President Bill Clinton and a veteran of the same U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Unfortunately, this court relied upon, and even quoted, the Government’s inaccurate statement, which it now knows to be false, in a previous order. While the court’s reliance on that statement was not dispositive of any issue, the court must ensure that it does not rely on any inaccurate information in any future orders.”

Bruce gave the prosecution two weeks to examine all filings in the case.

“To ensure the accuracy of the record, as well as the integrity of this court, the Government is ordered to review all claims and statements made in its current filings to ensure there are no more false or misleading claims,” he wrote.

The judge also seemed to be trying to flag the situation to Justice Department officials in Washington by speculating openly about whether those officials were aware of statements prosecutors made to the grand jury about whether Schock would or wouldn’t testify.

“The Government has claimed numerous times … that the Department of Justice authorized the charges in this case,” Bruce wrote in a footnote. “The court wonders if such authorization was made with full knowledge of the occurrences before the Grand Jury as set forth by the Government in its recent filing.”

Bruce specifically ordered that the new report be filed by Hansen, the top official in the office and a career prosecutor who took over after the previous U.S. attorney, an appointee of President Barack Obama, retired last year.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Defense attorneys have complained that the discussion with grand jurors about Schock’s testifying impinged on his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Schock’s lawyers have also made other allegations about prosecutorial misconduct, including examining Schock’s sexuality. The prosecution has denied any interest in that subject.

An attorney for Schock, George Terwilliger, had little to say about the judge’s latest ruling. “The order speaks for itself,” he said.

Schock was indicted on 24 felony counts last November stemming from an FBI investigation into his use of his House office expense allowance and campaign funds for personal gain. The indictment alleges Schock illegally pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in improper mileage reimbursements, camera equipment, and proceeds from selling tickets to the World Series and Super Bowl.

The former congressman has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have attributed some of the transactions that the government portrays as theft or fraud as nothing more than sloppy bookkeeping.

Schock’s trial is set to begin in January.

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Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
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