South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Robert Hyde, an impeachment probe figure, donated to De Santis’ campaign.
TALLAHASSEE — Robert Hyde, the latest figure on the stage in the impeachment drama of President Trump, had a series of interactions with Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Like his associate Lev Parnas, Hyde has a penchant for posing with highranking GOP officials and posting them on his social media accounts, including some with DeSantis. He also donated $3,000 to DeSantis’ campaign on Jan. 17, 2018.
Hyde’s WhatsApp messages discussing surveilling Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, were released by a U.S. House panel on Jan 15. Yovanovitch was the subject of a campaign to oust her by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“Her phone is off. Computer is off. She’s next to the embassy. Not in the embassy. Private security. Been there since Thursday,” Hyde wrote to Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani’s who was arrested in October after allegedly funneling foreign money to GOP candidates in 2018. “They know she’s a political puppet. They will let me know when she’s on the move.”
“Perfect,” Parnas replied, according to the documents released by the House Intelligence Committee.
Hyde has since disputed the implication of the tweets, saying in a video posted on Twitter that he was passing along information from a Belgian national to Parnas and was unaware of their import.
“I thought I was joking,”
Hyde told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday. “I can’t even answer you accurately because I don’t have the messages. I was traveling. I was in Ireland.”
But the documents have prompted an investigation from Ukraine and U.S. State Department authorities, and FBI agents have reportedly visited Hyde’s house.
Hyde, 40, is currently running for the Republican n o mi n a t i o n f o r a U. S. House seat in Connecticut.
The extent of Hyde’s interactions with DeSantis i s u n c l e a r. D e Sa n t i s ’ spokeswoman Helen Ferre did not answer emailed questions or return a phone call for this story.
Hyde has posted an undated picture of him with DeSantis allegedly at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C. on his LinkedIn page. He included the text “That time, many times I helped Ron DeSantis win
Governor of Florida.”
He also posted a picture of himself with DeSantis and first lady Casey DeSantis at his inaugural ball on his consulting firm’s Facebook page, which has since been taken down.
DeSantis has also declined to answer more questions about his connections to Parnas, whose company Global Energy Producers gave DeSantis’ political committee $50,000 during the campaign. DeSantis ordered the money to be given to the U.S. Treasury after Parnas’ arrest.
DeSantis met with Parnas at various fundraisers, rallies, campaign events and at his inaugural ceremony on six different occasions, his aides have confirmed.
Parnas was charged, along with his associate, Igor Fruman, by federal prosecutors in New York with using Global Energy Producers to funnel money from a foreign donor to the campaign of a Texas Republican.
Parnas has since released documents to the U.S. House outlining his involvement with Giuliani’s efforts to oust Yovanovitch and probe the appointment of Hunter Biden, son of former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, to the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Trump’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, a Democratic rival for reelection, are at the heart of the House’s vote to impeach Trump and the ongoing trial in the U.S. Senate.