SPYING ON ENVOY A JOKE
Claims texts were drunken spoof
A Trump-boosting congressional candidate from Connecticut claimed Wednesday he was just drunkenly joshing with some pals when he texted about spying on Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who provided key testimony in the House impeachment inquiry.
Robert Hyde, who has mounted a long-shot Republican bid to represent Connecticut’s 5th District, offered the curious explanation in response to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s Tuesday night release of a batch of text messages between him and Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.
“How low can liddle Adam Bull Schiff go? I was never in Kiev,” Hyde tweeted. “For them to take some texts my buddy’s [sic] 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.”
In the texts, which date from March 22 through March 29, Hyde gave Parnas frequent updates about the alleged whereabouts of Yovanovitch, who was still running the U.S. Embassy in Kiev at the time.
“She’s next to the embassy,” Hyde wrote in one text, citing “contacts” he supposedly had in the Ukrainian capital. “They will let me know when she’s on the move.”
In a more ominous exchange, Hyde pitched Parnas on a business deal involving his “contacts.”
“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” Hyde texted. “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money.”
Parnas replied, “Lol.” Hyde, who has been pictured with President Trump and his close family members on numerous occasions, did not return multiple requests for comment Wednesday on what exactly he was offering Parnas.
Yovanovitch’s lawyer was deeply concerned by the newly unearthed texts.
“Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing,” attorney Lawrence Robbins said. “We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”
In a tweet, Hyde said he’d “welcome an investigation.”
“I’ll provide my email password and hand my phone over, bring it on,” he posted.
The texts between Hyde and Parnas were sent at a time when Giuliani and other right-wing figures were mounting a vicious smear campaign against Yovanovitch after she spoke out against President Trump’s attempts to squeeze Ukrainian officials for investigations of Democrats.
In the texts, Hyde kept calling Yovanovitch a “b—-h” and wondered why Trump hadn’t “fired” her already.
Trump abruptly yanked Yovanovitch from her post roughly a month later.
A State Department official who told Yovanovitch that she was being recalled from Ukraine said she wasn’t safe there, according to impeachment testimony.
Yovanovitch testified at length about the Giuliani-led smear during two sworn appearances before House impeachment investigators in October and November.
Parnas, who worked closely with Giuliani on the Yovanovitch smear and a bid to pressure Ukrainian officials to do Trump’s political bidding, turned over the Hyde texts to the House intelligence committee last week along with a cache of other explosive records. The exGiuliani pal, who has since been criminally charged for some of his Ukraine activities, now wants to testify before Congress.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who refused to unambiguously defend Yovanovitch or condemn the Giuliani-led smear against her, did not return requests for comment Wednesday via a spokeswoman.
John Herbst, who used to work with Yovanovitch and served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in the mid-2000s, said spying on an American diplomat is “outrageous and presumably illegal.”
“Certainly Masha Yovanovitch was used to being surveilled by Russian intelligence, but to be surveilled by a private American — what sort of bizarre world are we in?” Herbst, who served under President George W. Bush, told the Daily News, though he stressed he didn’t know whether Hyde’s messages were serious “or just bragging.”
Daniel Fried, another longtime former U.S. diplomat, called Hyde’s texts “creepy” and said Pompeo’s continued silence speaks volumes.
“His abandonment of Ambassador Yovanovitch doesn’t look any better with this new information,” Fried said.