Mysterious Belgian Texted Robert Hyde About Surveillance Of U.S. Ukraine Ambassador, New Lev Parnas Texts Show
A trove of newly released evidence provided by Ukraine scandal figure Lev Parnas contains chilling text messages appearing to show that U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was placed under surveillance by people associated with Donald Trump’s effort to pressure that country for political favors. The new messages would corroborate messages released on Tuesday between Republican donor Robert Hyde and Parnas that also indicated an operation to track the ambassador in Kiev.
The messages released late on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee come from an unidentified phone number in the country of Belgium, and were received by Hyde.
The sender of those texts was Anthony de Caluwe, according to an NBC News report. De Caluwe denied helping Hyde track Yovanovitch, telling NBC News, “it’s against the law.”
The avatar attached to the text messages is a photo of de Caluwe, and the visible portion of a phone number on the released texts matches a number for the Belgian, according to the NBC News report. He is also a friend of pro-Trump YouTube personality Karyn Turk, who says that she is now acting as de Caluwe’s media representative, according to NBC News.
Hyde, who is running for Congress in Connecticut’s Fifth District, has denied any involvement with a surveillance operation directed at Yovanovitch, according to a tweet by Hartford Courant Capitol Bureau Chief Christopher Keating.
ROBERT HYDE came to state Capitol in Hartford on Friday to tell a Hartford Courant reporter that he is an innocent man who was never involved with surveillance of American ambassador to Ukraine pic.twitter.com/Sp2OdNSwGw
— Christopher Keating (@chrispkeating) January 17, 2020
The texts between the person appearing to be de Caluwe and Hyde were apparently saved as screenshots by the Connecticut Republican, who then shared images of the text exchange with Parnas.
When Parnas turned over hundreds of text messages from his phone to congressional investigators, the screen shots were included in the large amount of evidence.
In one text message, the person at the Belgian number tells Hyde, “It’s confirmed we have a person inside,” after previously saying that “she is still not moving.” The sender in Belgium later tells Hyde, “she had visitors.”
In the earlier messages, Hyde tells Parnas that he knows people in Ukraine who are “willing to help” with Yovanovitch, “for a price.”
“Guess you can do anything in Ukraine with money,” Hyde adds in a subsequent text.
In an MSNBC interview on Wednesday, Parnas said that he did not believe Hyde was telling the truth about placing Yovanovitch under surveillance, according to an NBC News report. Parnas described Hyde as “a weird character” who was “drunk all the time.”
The newly released texts between Hyde and the mysterious person at a Belgian phone number may indicate that the surveillance operation was more than a mere fantasy concocted by Hyde, as it appears to involve another person.
In another message, the person presumed to be de Caluwe tells Hyde, “My contacts are checking,” and, “I will give you the address next week.” The texts appear to refer to Yovanovitch, because the person at the Belgian number also texted Hyde a photo of the then-U.S. ambassador, who was fired by Trump on May 20, 2019, the same day that new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated.
To the promise to give him “the address,” Hyde replies, “Awesome.”
