Shuster denies ordering aide to spy on opponent

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | November 7, 2003 | Bill Toland

[buzzyboop]

BREEZEWOOD, Pa. -- At a press conference in a Breezewood hotel this morning, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Blair, denied accusations that he directed a part-time office aide to spy on Shuster's challenger in next year's Republican primary.

The former aide -- Joshua Juda, who resigned from Shuster's office last week -- says the congressman and his chief of staff ordered Juda to engage in a "park-and-watch" detail at the family home of Shuster's Republican primary election opponent, Michael DelGrosso, to determine whether DelGrosso actually lives within the 9th Congressional District.

Juda also alleges that Shuster asked him to surreptitiously monitor a June 6 fund raiser to see if any of Shuster's campaign contributors were "switching sides" and aligning themselves with DelGrosso, whose family owns DelGrosso Italian Foods.

Shuster said he's baffled by Juda's accusations.

"At no time did I ever order, direct or ask Joshua to attend any fund-raiser for Michael DelGrosso or to monitor Mr. DelGrosso," Shuster said, reading from a prepared statement and flanked by a former press secretary, Angelo Terrana.

He also said that "no member of my staff" asked Juda to spy on DelGrosso.

While denying that he initiated the spying, Shuster said, "my name's on the door. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for it."

Juda said that not only did he conduct the surveillance at Shuster's behest, but he did it at public expense. "It was my understanding that I was functioning in my capacity as a congressional staff member," and was getting paid for his work, he said in a statement.

Shuster said today that Juda did the spying on his own time and did so in a volunteer capacity. That's an important distinction, because using paid staff members to do political campaign work is a violation of congressional ethics rules.

[Theodore R.]

This is bizarre! For a PA Republican to think that a primary challenger could cause him problems is really odd. Why is Shuster worrying? Now Arlen Specter, he may have something to worry about, but Shuster?

[TaxRelief]

Hey, does he have a daughter named Amy who psuedo-works for the Bush campaign?