A GOP congressional candidate allegedly behind the surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch called her a 'scumbag' on Twitter, and spread conspiracy theories about Ukraine
- On Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee released messages in which GOP congressional candidate Robert Hyde suggested to Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas he was sureveilling the US' ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
- Hyde is a congressional candidate in Connecticut, and on social media has targeted former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris with an obscene tweet, and Yovanovitch with insults and smears.
- These smears included calling her a "scumbag" and a "traitor," and suggesting she worked for George Soros.
- In an incident at a Florida Trump resort, he claimed he was being targeted for assassination and was detained under laws for people who police believe may be a risk to their own safety, reported Mother Jones.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Messages in which a GOP candidate suggested to Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas that he had placed Marie Yovanovitch, then-US ambassador to Ukraine, under surveillance, were released Tuesday.
They introduced a new player into the Ukraine scandal - a GOP congressional candidate in Connecticut named Robert Hyde - whom lawyers for Parnas told media outlets was the man behind the messages.
Before the release of Tuesday's batch of messages Hyde was best known for sending an obscene message to former Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, on Twitter.
The message, which has since been deleted, saw Hyde make a crude joke about Harris and oral sex after she dropped out of the presidential race in December 2019.
Democrats and top Republicans urged him to withdraw from the race over the message.
While he deleted that particular tweet, a review of Hyde's Twitter feed shows he has long taken a hardline pro-Trump stance, distributing pro-Trump conspiracies, and singling out Yovanovitch in attacks.
In a message sent during Yovanovitch's impeachment testimony in November, where she described being warned to leave Ukraine over threats to her security, he described her as a "traitor" and "scumbag."
He also shared list of smears about her, including that she worked for Jewish financier George Soros, a favorite far-right trope.
Yovanovitch's attorneys have called for a formal investigation to be launched into the messages.
Business Insider has attempted to reach Hyde for comment, but had not recieved a response at the time of publication.
On Tuesday night, Hyde tweeted: "These are bad people, I'm out to expose their actions. Attack me all you want, get the facts first.
"The media is against me because they're either complicit or have a hand in it, I welcome an investigation. I'll provide my email password and hand my phone over, bring it on. #hyde"
Then on Wednesday morning, Hyde made two jokes on Twitter referring to himself as a CIA agent, seemingly in reference to allegations he surveilled Yovanovitch:
The Daily Beast reported that in a Facebook message he claimed that the messages to Parnas had been intended as a joke to fool him.
"How low can liddle Adam Bull Schiff go?" Hyde wrote, referring to House Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff.
"I was never in Kiev. For them to take some texts my buddy's 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. Have fun with your witch-hunt liddle Schiff."
After his tweets to Harris were criticized, the state Republican party returned a donation he had made.
Hyde has also shared pictures on social media of himself posing with President Donald Trump, top Republicans, and other members of the Trump family.
As recently as January 11 he shared an image of himself with the president.
He also reportedly sent a CTinsider reporter images last November of himself posing with Giuliani, Parnas and Igor Fruman, who alongside Parnas was indicted last year for allegedly feeding foreign money into GOP campaigns. Both men deny the charges.
According to the CTinsider report, he is a former Marine who owns a Washington DC lobbying business, Finley Hyde and Associates. A LinkedIn profile for Hyde lists him as the president of the company.
Late Tuesday, Mother Jones obtained a report from police in Florida. According to the report, officers had been called to the Trump Doral Miami resort in May with a report of a "male in distress fearing for his life."
The man was Hyde, the report said. He claimed "he was in fear for his life, was set up and that a hit man was out to get him."
"Additionally Mr. Hyde explained that his computer was being hacked by Secret Service. And then went on to further explain that the secret service [sic] was arrival [sic] on the premises watching him."
He was reportedly detained under a law police in the state use for holding people they believe are a risk to their own safety.
- Read more:
Russians hacked company key to Ukraine scandal: researchers