A Possibly Shady Real Estate Deal Caps Aaron Schock's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

A year ago when Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock was ostensibly outed in a publicized blind item-styled Facebook post by former CBS journalist Itay Hod, it's hard to believe that he ever thought he'd have a worse week.

Following this week's Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) complaint over redecorating his taxpayer-funded office a la "Downton Abbey" purportedly with campaign money, and Thursday's resignation of his Communications Director Benjamin Cole over reports of racial comments made on social media, Schock has a new headache: the revelation of a suspicious real estate deal involving one of his key campaign supporters.

According to a 2012 report in Blue Nation Review, Schock sold his Peoria, Ill., home to Ali Bahaj of the Caterpillar construction vehicle company for more than three times the tax assessed value of the property. A search by BNR found that a home nearly identical to the congressman's sold for $580,000 one year prior to the sale of Schock's home to Bahaj for $925,000.

At the time of the sale, real estate values in Peoria were close to rock bottom, and yet Schock's home sold for over $250,000 more than a comparable home went for a year later during the real estate market's recovery.

Since then, Schock has "carried water" to Washington repeatedly for Caterpillar and has gone public to defend attacks on the company for avoiding billions of dollars in taxes by shifting profits to Switzerland. BNR points out that last month the congressman defended the company's move to lay off workers and blamed the problem on President Barack Obama.

Could this all be payback?

In addition to the profit Schock made on his home in 2012, Federal Election Commission records show that Bahaj and his wife each made the maximum allowable donation to Schock's campaign in 2008.

Schock, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2009, has 0% rating from HRC. He voted against adding sexual orientation to an existing hate crimes law. He was a vocal opponent of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act and has expressed support of a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

In 2011, Schock became the first member of congress to appear shirtless on the cover of Men's Health magazine.