Evidence suggests envoy was under surveillance
WASHINGTON – A top House Democrat demanded an investigation Wednesday into new evidence suggesting that former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance by associates of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
The evidence emerged Tuesday when House Democrats released text messages and other documents gathered as part of the impeachment probe into Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
The text messages reveal that an associate of Giuliani’s, Lev Parnas, was in contact with Robert Hyde, a proTrump congressional candidate in Connecticut who claimed to have Yovanovitch under surveillance.
In March, Parnas sent Hyde articles critical of Yovanovitch, to which Hyde responded, “Wow. can’t believe Trumo (sic) hasn’t fired this b **** .”
Hyde sent Parnas a series of messages suggesting he had hired people in Ukraine to surveil the ambassador and was getting updates about her whereabouts and activities.
“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” Hyde wrote in one message. In another: “They will let me know when she’s on the move.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the messages “profoundly alarming” and said he would demand documents and a briefing from State Department officials to find out what they knew.
“The messages suggest a possible risk to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s security in Kyiv before she was recalled from her post last year,” Engel said. Trump yanked her from the ambassador post early after Giuliani complained that she was obstructing efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
During testimony, Yovanovitch told lawmakers that she received an unexpected phone call last April from a top State Department official, who told her she needed to leave Ukraine on the next flight home.
“This is about your security. You need to come home immediately,” Yovanovitch said she was told by Carol Perez, director general of the State Department’s foreign service.