U.S. Republican Congressional Candidate Michael DelGrosso and members of his community responded yesterday to a public statement released by former Shuster staffer Joshua Juda regarding a widely publicized \u201cspying\u201d incident that took place in DelGrosso\u2019s neighborhood in September.
\n\u201cI feel badly for my neighbors and for the young staffer who is obviously deeply troubled personally and professionally by this incident,\u201d DelGrosso said.
\nLast week, Congressman Shuster admitted the surveillance of DelGrosso\u2019s home did take place, but that it occurred without his direction or knowledge. In a released statement, Congressman Shuster said that he had learned that an \u201coverzealous volunteer\u201d had engaged in surveillance on his own time.
\nJuda\u2019s statements directly contradicts Shuster\u2019s assertions. In an open letter to the press, Juda state that he was given direct instructions from Congressman Shuster to carry out the surveillance on DelGrosso\u2019s home in Tipton on more than one occasion, and that the activity took place \u201con payroll.\u201d
\nIn his statement, Juda said he was first asked to conduct unethical practices on June 6 when directed by the Congressman to monitor a fundraiser at DelGrosso\u2019s Amusement Park in Tipton. According to Juda, he was also asked, by both Shuster and his chief of staff, Alex Mistri, to observe DelGrosso\u2019s activities at his home on two separate occasions in September.
\n\u201cAt each occasion, it was my understanding that I was functioning in my capacity as a congressional staff member for which I was being paid through the Congressional payroll,\u201d said Juda. \u201cI was not employed by any other outside organization or internal division of Congressman Shuster\u2019s office.\u201d
\nDelGrosso said this is why these incidents should not be taken lightly.
\n\u201cIf this is true, the implications are serious,\u201d DelGrosso said. \u201cIt is a direct violation of House ethics rules and it could have serious legal consequences. Congressional staffers \u2013 people on the public payroll \u2013 should not be engaged in political activities like surveillance. Voters of the Ninth District deserve the truth, they deserve a Congressman they can trust.\u201d
\nA neighbor of DelGrosso who was very outspoken in the public about the \u201cspying\u201d incidents, told The Daily Herald yesterday that although she didn\u2019t condone what Shuster or his staff did, that she was happy this was a political ploy.
\n\u201cI have a 5-year-old daughter and I feared for her,\u201d said Glenna Jayne-Hughes, who authored a Letter to the Editor that was distributed to newspapers throughout the Ninth District concerning the incident.
\nHughes said she felt bad for Juda and understood that he was only following orders.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a shame,\u201d she said.
\nHughes did say that Shuster came to her home on Saturday morning to offer an apology, which she accepted. She also said that the he claimed Juda only did this once. She said she knew Shuster was not being truthful.
\n\u201cIf he (Shuster) would have come clean about this in September, I think it would not have gotten to this point,\u201d she said.
\nDelGrosso said despite the incident, he must continue to look forward to the April 27 election.
\n\u201cI remain focused on the real issues that people care about,\u201d said DelGrosso. \u201cThe headlines should be about jobs and healthcare, not about a Congressional staffer spying on my nieghborhood. It\u2019s business as usual at DelGrosso For Congress. Tomorrow I will surpass (knocking on) 6,5000 doors when I visit Indiana County.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Republican Congressional Candidate Michael DelGrosso and members of his community responded yesterday to a public statement released by former Shuster staffer Joshua Juda regarding a widely publicized \u201cspying\u201d incident that took place in DelGrosso\u2019s neighborhood in September. \u201cI feel badly for my neighbors and for the young staffer who is obviously deeply troubled personally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}