Raphael John Musto (March 30, 1929 – April 24, 2014) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Democratic Party member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

for

Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district is located in the southeast-central part of the state. It includes all of Lancaster County and portions of York County south and east of but not including the city of York. Republican Lloyd Smucker r ...

from 1980 to 1981. He served as a member of the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

for the 118th district from 1971 to 1980 and of the

Pennsylvania Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mi ...

for the 14th district from 1982 until his retirement in 2010.

Early life and education

Musto was born in

Pittston, Pennsylvania Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city lies in the Wyoming Valley on the east side of the Susquehanna River and on the south side of the Lackawanna River. It is approximately midway between Wilkes-Barre, Pen ...

, and graduated from Pittston Township High School. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

from 1951 to 1953 during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. He graduated from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre in 1971.

Career

When his father, longtime

State Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

James Musto, died in 1971, the younger Musto won a special election to fill his seat. He was elected to a full term in 1972 and was reelected three times. In 1980, longtime Congressman

Dan Flood Daniel John Flood (November 26, 1903 – May 28, 1994) was an American attorney and politician, a flamboyant and long-serving Democratic United States Representative from Pennsylvania. First elected to the US House in 1944, he served continuously ...

, who had represented for most of the time since 1945, resigned after being censured for bribery. Musto won a four-way special election for the remainder of Flood's term. He ran for a full term later that year, but was narrowly defeated by Republican challenger

James Nelligan James Leo Nelligan (born February 14, 1929) is an American retired politician from Pennsylvania. A member of the Republican Party, he served as member of the United States House of Representatives for only one term from 1981 to 1983. In 1991, he ...

, whom Musto had defeated in the special election. While in Congress, Musto met with undercover FBI agents posing as representatives of a fictitious Middle Eastern Sheik known as the

ABSCAM Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was a Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of the United States Congress and others for bribery and co ...

sting operation. Musto declined an implied bribe from the FBI agents and was never charged in the investigation. Musto was elected to the state Senate in 1982 and was reelected six times, representing a district consisting of Wilkes-Barre and portions of the Poconos. He did not seek re-election in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, choosing instead to retire at the end of his term. On November 23, 2010, a federal grand jury issued a six-count indictment against Musto, charging him with accepting more than $28,000 from an unnamed company and individual in exchange for his help in obtaining grants and funding. Musto was also charged with accepting $3,000 from another unnamed individual in a separate incident. Musto denied any wrongdoing. The trial was delayed multiple times due to Musto's declining health. Musto was released from a federal medical prison in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

in April 2014. He had been declared mentally unfit to stand trial and was diagnosed with advanced stage lymph-node cancer while being treated at the prison. He died at his home in Pittston on April 24. The criminal case against him was dismissed posthumously on April 30, 2014, by Federal Judge A. Richard Caputo.

References

External links

*''Follow the Money'' - Raphael J. Musto
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campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Musto, Raphael J. 1929 births 2014 deaths Abscam United States Army personnel of the Korean War Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania People from Pittston, Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania Democratic Party Pennsylvania state senators Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives United States Army soldiers King's College (Pennsylvania) alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 20th-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives