More scrutiny comes to Aaron Schock travel expenses

Recently released records from the House of Representatives show the fourth-term congressman’s office paid $10,802 in the last quarter of 2014 to pilot Keith Siilats for “commercial transportation”.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the congressman hired Siilats to fly him from Peoria to Chicago for a Bears-Vikings football game on Nov. 16. The paper says Schock chartered an aircraft to take him from Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia, to Peoria, Illinois, that Friday, Nov. 14. The return trip to Reagan National Airport was set for the next Monday and he tucked in a side trip to Chicago to attend the game. Siilats told the Sun-Times that he attend the game with Schock and that the only invoice he submitted was for government payment.

“That whole weekend was paid by the government,” Siilats told the paper.

The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has called on the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Schock three times over the past month. The Office of Congressional Ethics will not comment on the allegations, but Schock is already facing an ethics inquiry in the House over an accusation he broke fundraising rules and federal law in 2012 by soliciting higher-than-allowed contributions for a political committee.

A spokesman also confirmed a Politico report Friday that Schock plans to postpone a fundraiser at Washington restaurant Del Campo that was set for Thursday, but said the congressman continues to hold other events. He had one Sunday morning and plans to do more in March.

CNN