The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Hyde slammed Yovanovitch and Bidens
Analysis of Nov. interview reveals candidate’s vitriol
WASHINGTON — Months before his text messages became public, Robert Hyde, a Connecticut congressional candidate whose name has surfaced in documents related to the possible surveillance of a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, criticized Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch to Hearst Connecticut Media and defended the president’s effort to seek investigations into a political rival.
“If you look at Donald Trump, he was trying to get Maria [sic] Yovanovitch back to the United States 10 months ago and she wouldn’t come back,” Hyde said in an interview on Nov. 6, 2019. “She wouldn’t come here.”
In the context of texts from March 2019 that House Democrats contend show Hyde communicating with businessman Lev Parnas, Hyde’s comments to Hearst Connecticut Media further raise the question of whether the Simsbury resident had a role in the alleged tracking of
the truth about the Ukraine affair, dismissing them as “Obama appointees.”
Hyde suggested that Yovanovitch only returned to Washington, D.C. to testify against the president.
“Now they got everybody in DC trying to implicate and impeach Trump on a phone call he made to the Ukraine and now she comes back to testify,” Hyde said. “It’s just sad and disturbing what’s going on in D.C., honestly.”
In fact, Yovanovitch was recalled to Washington by the State Department in late April 2019, months before Trump’s infamous July phone call with Ukraine and before the start of the impeachment inquiry in September.
The transcripts do not show that Yovanovitch testified about any specific requests she leave Ukraine before April 2019, nor do they show she said she refused to return to the U.S. at any point.
Two batches of documents released by House Democrats last week include texts in which Hyde and Parnas appear to discuss an effort to surveil Yovanovitch.
On Thursday, Hyde denied any such involvement in a surveillance plot. He said he never went to Ukraine. Hyde also said Thursday that he never received money from Parnas.
Hyde has told media at separate times this month that he was just joking around with Parnas and also that he was passing information from another DC acquaintance, Anthony De Caluwe, to Parnas without understanding what it meant. De Caluwe told NBC News that he sent messages to Hyde about Yovanovitch but there was no actual monitoring of the ambassador.
In the November interview, Hyde made no suggestion that he worked with Parnas or that he was involved in a surveillance plot. He declined to answer questions about how he knew Parnas, Parnas associate Igor Fruman or the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, although he texted photos of himself with these individuals to Hearst Connecticut Media.
Hyde said Thursday he doesn’t remember how he met Parnas.
“I’m sure I could figure it out,” Hyde added. “There’s gotta be a trail.”
Hyde speculated the meeting might have been at a fundraising event, where Hyde found himself in the same venue for a different event. He said Fruman was always with Parnas.
“He barely spoke any English,” Hyde said. “I thought he was nice.”
He said he met Giuliani, “Years ago, I don’t know when,” but said he “absolutely” did not work for Giuliani or Trump. He didn’t comment further.
In the November interview, Hyde indirectly referenced Parnas and Fruman, both of whom pleaded not guilty in October to charges of illegally channeling foreign donations to U.S. political candidates.
“Let two individuals who just got arrested for Trump and Giuliani, and Trump and the impeachment inquiry start, and now these people are going to come back and testify?” Hyde said, dismissing the idea that Trump administration officials like Yovanovitch would testify honestly to Congress.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations visited Hyde’s home since his texts were published last week. Police in Ukraine have said they are investigating the possible surveillance of Yovanovitch. The State Department has also said it is reviewing whether Yovanovitch was under surveillance.
Hyde said in November that the impeachment inquiry showed that “the swamp [is] basically trying to take [Trump] him out of the picture, take him out of the equation because they are covering up all their corruption.”
Hyde ridiculed the idea that Trump was a “bad guy.”
“He tried to put the hair on his political candidate running against him,” Hyde said. “Oh my god, because he was trying to rid this world of political corruption. Oh my god, what a horrible president.”
Multiple Trump administration officials have testified under oath to Congress that Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden – who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination – and his son, Hunter Biden, who previously served on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm called Burisma.
Hyde described Joe Biden and Hunter Biden as the real source of corruption. Hyde advanced a discredited theory that Biden wanted to dismiss a Ukrainian prosecutor in order to protect his son’s business dealings.
In the interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, Hyde referenced a paternity case against Hunter Biden and the fact that he was discharged from the Navy reserves after testing positive for cocaine in 2014.
Hyde called Hunter Biden "a piece of shit."
“And everybody’s attacking Trump, but all he was doing was – I mean Biden’s on video literally saying fire the prosecutor or we’re not going to give you the money," said Hyde. "And what the heck has this country come to? And they’re going to attack Trump because he wants the right thing done?”
Hyde’s connection to Trump, Parnas, Fruman, Giuliani and others in the president’s inner circle was first reported by Hearst Connecticut Media in November 2019.
Photos on his social media accounts show that Hyde frequents Trumpowned properties and both Hyde and Parnas have acknowledged as much. When asked if he frequents Trump hotels and golf courses, Hyde told Hearst Connecticut Media in November, “All the time. Every chance I can.”
Hyde recounted how he once had the president sign a “Make America Great Again” hat for a Southington boy whose hat was stolen, while both Hyde and Trump were at a Trump property in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I saw the president,” Hyde said. “I asked his aides if he would sign the hat and he did and that was that.”
A Simsbury resident, Hyde is running for Congress in Connecticut’s 5th District against Democrat U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes. The Republican has faced multiple calls for him to end his campaign from state GOP leaders.
Hyde has contributed thousands to Trump and other Republicans candidates and causes. He previously ran a landscaping business and in Dec. 2018, he started a government and public relations firm, Finley Hyde and Associates, in Washington, D.C.