It’s Hyde & seek
Probers say GOP guy won’t give Ukraine info
Republican operative Robert Hyde — who’s accused of spying on the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine while President Trump sought her ouster — isn’t delivering the information he promised congressional probers, say staffers for a key House committee.
Hyde, a Connecticut landscaper who is running for one of the Nutmeg state’s seats in Congress, blabbed to the Daily Beast this week that he had given “everything that I had” about an apparent surveillance operation targeting Marie Yovanovitch, who was the top U.S. envoy in Kiev until Trump removed her last spring.
Not so, investigators on the House Foreign Affairs Committee told Hyde in a sharply-worded email Thursday that was obtained by the Daily News.
“The committee was dismayed to read yesterday that you have made statements to the media which greatly exaggerate the extent of your cooperation with this investigation,” the committee wrote.
“As you know, we have expressed repeated concern that the records you previously produced contain significant gaps. Most importantly, you have failed to produce documents that Congress already knows exist … and have failed to explain when and why your copies of those records may have been destroyed.”
The committee demanded Hyde confirm by Friday that he will turn over any and all remaining records involving or relating to Yovanovitch, the U.S. embassy in Kiev and any other persons “who might have been involved in this matter.”
Hyde responded by sending the investigators a rambling response claiming he’d already given Foreigh Affairs Committee investigators everything he has, and offering to meet them in person.
Reached by The News over the phone on Friday afternoon, Hyde was livid about his treatment by the committee.
“It’s complete bull-—t,” Hyde said. “Someone’s trying to paint me as this f—-ing whatever fall guy … Dude, I’m not a government guy, I’m not a spy.”
A spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), did not return a request q for comment.
Hyde was catapulted into headlines last month after impeachment leaders released a trove of texts from early 2019 showing he talked with ex-Rudy Giuliani pal Lev Parnas about taking “out” Yovanovitch for the right “price.”
Hyde also sent texts to Parnas suggesting he was keeping track of Yovanovitch’s every move in Kiev — a revelation that became all the more disturbing since Trump abruptly removed her in April 2019 after she spoke out against his hunt for Ukrainian investigations.
Yovanovitch’s ouster was among many key episodes scrutinized by House Democrats as part of their Trump impeachment probe.
Despite Hyde’s claims,
The News was able to review the records Hyde turned over to the committee. His submission did not contain texts of his that became public in January after Parnas gave them to House investigators.
Hyde’s fresh batch of records did however contain some previously unreleased material, including a salacious exchange between him and Parnas about Ivanka Trump.
“Lol. Pinch her ass,” Hyde texted after Parnas said he was having dinner with the president’s daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, in October 2018.
Hyde maintains his texts about an apparent Yovanovitch surveillance scheme were a drunken, innocuous spoof and that he was “playing with” Parnas.
But the House Foreign Affairs Committee doesn’t buy that explanation and continues to press for more records from Hyde and others involved in the apparent operation.
Hyde dared Engel to turn up the heat even more if he doesn’t believe he has already turned over all the records he has.
“Just subpoena me if they think I’m lying,” he said.