As House Democrats released new critical documents for the impeachment case – including disturbing text messages, handwritten notes, and other correspondence from Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani’s indicted aide – Ukraine announced a criminal investigation into possible surveillance of former US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
A series of cryptic WhatsApp messages between Lev Parnas and Robert Hyde, Republican congressional candidate, seemed to imply that Yovanovitch’s physical movements and electronic devices were closely monitored.
“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” one of Hyde’s texts to Parnas had said.
He then followed up, “She’s next to the embassy. Not in the embassy.”
In five minutes, the Connecticut congressional candidate promised that mysterious “they” would let him know when the Ambassador was back “on the move”. Hyde also shared his conclusion that one could “do anything in the Ukraine with money”.
After a new batch of evidence had been released, Marie Yovanovitch called for an investigation. Her lawyer, Lawrence Robbins, made the following statement: “Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing. We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”
On Thursday, January 16, Ukraine’s interior ministry issued a statement on starting a probe into the alleged surveillance of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
"Ukraine's position is not to interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States of America. However, the published records contain the fact of possible violation of the legislation of Ukraine and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which protects the rights of a diplomat in the territory of another country," the ministry's statement read. "After analyzing these materials, the National Police of Ukraine upon their publication started criminal proceedings under part 2 of Art. 163 (Violation of the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, telegraph or other correspondence) and part 1 of Art. 182 (Unlawful collection, storage, use of confidential information about a person, violation of privacy) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," it then concluded.