HARTFORD, CT – Robert F. Hyde, the Simsbury Republican who is running for Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, appears to have conveyed information about the location of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to one of Rudy Giuliani’s associates.
That’s according to text messages and other correspondence released Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee.
The documents detailing the conversations were released as part of a larger package of evidence a day before Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to formally send two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate so it can begin its trial.
The text messages, which had not previously been detailed as part of the impeachment inquiry, imply that Republican 5th District candidate Robert F. Hyde had access to people spying on Yovanovitch. The text messages in March 2019 were sent to Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani, who is the president’s personal attorney.
Hyde, a Trump donor and Republican Congressional candidate whose involvement in the Ukraine saga had not been previously detailed, sent texts to Parnas implying he had access to people spying on Yovanovitch in Kyiv, according to the newly released documents.
Parnas was arrested in October 2019 by federal authorities while attempting to leave the U.S.
According to the four chairs of the Congressional committee, Reps. Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, and Eliot Engel, “Parnas responded to his subpoena by turning over a trove of documents that provide more information about the effort to coerce Ukraine into helping the President’s reelection campaign.”
The documents were recently released pursuant to Freedom of Information Act.
Hyde provided regular updates to Parnas in March, according to the documents, including one message that said, “Wow. Can’t believe Trump (sic) hasn’t fired this bitch. I’ll get right in (sic) that.”
On March 23, Hyde texted the following message: “she under heavy protection outside Kiev.”
Then on March 25: “They are moving her tomorrow.”
Later that same day he texted the following: “She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off.” Then seconds later he texted, “She’s next to the embassy.”
And then: “Private security. Been there since Thursday.”
Parnas replied: “Interesting.”
“They know she’s a political puppet,” Hyde replied. “They will let me know when she’s on the move.”
Parnas: “Perfect.”
In another message Hyde wrote to Parnas, he said: “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.” Hyde added: “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money … what I was told.”
Parnas replied “LOL.”
On March 26 Hyde sent the following: “Update she will not be moved special security unit upgraded force on the compound people are already aware of the situation my contacts are asking what is the next step because they cannot keep going to check people will start to ask questions.”
On March 27 and on March 29 Hyde texted Parnas: “It’s confirmed we have a person inside.”
Based on the release of the documents, CTNewsJunkie sent a message to Hyde on Tuesday night asking whether he had been providing surveillance for Rudy Giuliani’s associates in Kyiv.
Hyde’s texted reply was: “Where’s Hillary’s 33k emails?”
He later tweeted: “How low can liddle Adam Bull Schiff go? I was never in Kiev. For them to take some texts my buddy’s and I wrote back to some dweeb we were playing with that we met a few times while we had a few drinks is definitely laughable. Schiff is a desperate turd playing with this Lev guy.”
The information released by the House Intelligence Committee was described as “disturbing” by a lawyer for the former ambassador.
“Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing,” Lawrence Robbins, a lawyer for the ex-ambassador, said in a statement Thursday. “We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”
Hyde previously made news in Connecticut when he tweeted a crude comment about Sen. Kamala Harris’ exit from the presidential race. Both Democrats and Republicans in Connecticut have called on Hyde to end his congressional bid following the sexually charged tweet.
The Connecticut Republican Party also returned donations Hyde made to the party following the incident.
