A grand jury has indicted former Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock on 24 criminal counts.

The charges, announced Thursday, include wire fraud, theft of government funds and making false statements.

“These charges allege that Mr. Schock deliberately and repeatedly violated federal law, to his personal and financial advantage,” Jim Lewis, an attorney, told NPR. “Mr. Schock held public office at the time of the alleged offenses, but public office does not exempt him or anyone else from accountability for alleged intentional misuse of public funds and campaign funds.”

Schock maintained his innocence during a press conference.

“After the government realized there was no crime, they chose to spend the next 19 months using two grand juries and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to manufacture a crime,” he said. “I intend to not only fight to prove these allegations false but in the process expose this investigation for what it was.”

Schock, 35, resigned from Congress last year after the allegations surfaced.

Rumors that Schock – who consistently voted against LGBT rights – may be gay have been attributed to his colorful Instagram posts.

(Related: Aaron Schock offered $1 million to appear in gay porn.)