Marie Yovanovitch: Former Ukraine ambassador calls for investigation after documents suggest she was under surveillance by Trump donor
Text messages reveal Republican candidate referred to ousted ambassador as ‘that b****’
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Your support makes all the difference.The former US ambassador to Ukraine, who testified in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, has called for an investigation into whether she was spied on before she was ousted by the president.
Text exchanges released by Congress on Tuesday suggest Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador, had been placed under surveillance by Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate and Trump donor.
Mr Hyde told Lev Parnas, an associate of Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, he had unnamed sources who could “let [him] know when she is on the move” and suggested he knew when Ms Yovanovitch’s phone and computer were turned off.
In response to the documents, Ms Yovanovitch’s lawyer said an investigation should be launched into Mr Hyde’s comments.
“The notion that American citizens and others were monitoring ambassador Yovanovitch's movements for unknown purposes is disturbing,” a statement from the lawyer said.
“We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation.”
Ms Yovanovitch became involved in the impeachment inquiry into Mr Trump after she was removed from her position in May 2019 following a smear campaign against her by the president’s allies.
In a July phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, Mr Trump said the former ambassador was “going to go through some things”.
Democrats have suggested she was removed from her position to allow the Trump administration to pressure Mr Zelensky into announcing an investigation into 2020 candidate Joe Biden.
In the newly-released text messages, Mr Hyde is shown referring to Ms Yovanovitch as “that b****” and appearing to discuss how to remove her from her position.
“If you want her out, they need to make contact with security forces,” the congressional candidate told Mr Parnas, according to the documents.
He also sent messages giving Mr Parnas detailed updates that implied he was watching the former ambassador.
“She's talked to three people. Her phone is off. Her computer is off,” he wrote, adding that she was under heavy security and “we have a person inside.”
Mr Hyde later wrote on Twitter that the release of the document was “laughable” and suggested that his comments had been made in jest.
“For them [the House Intelligence Committee] 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,” he said.
He added that he would “welcome an investigation” and claimed he was willing to provide his email password and phone to investigators.
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