The State Department plans to investigate a potential spying operation waged against an ex-U.S. ambassador.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo committed to investigating evidence of a surveillance operation against former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on Friday, according to CNN. The possibility of a surveillance operation was raised on Tuesday after House lawmakers released copies of messages between Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and GOP congressional candidate Robert Hyde.
“We will do everything we need to do to evaluate whether there was something that took place there,” Pompeo told Tony Katz, a conservative radio host based in Indianapolis.
“I suspect that much of what’s been reported will ultimately prove wrong, but our obligation, my obligation as secretary of state, is to make sure that we evaluate, investigate. Any time there is someone who posits that there may have been a risk to one of our officers, we’ll obviously do that,” Pompeo said.
In a separate interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Pompeo denied having any knowledge of a surveillance operation before the Parnas-Hyde texts were released.
Ukraine announced its own investigation into potential spying on Thursday.
Parnas turned over the messages he exchanged with Hyde to House lawmakers as part of the lower chamber’s investigation into President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. In the messages, Hyde said he had “eyes” on Yovanovitch and spoke about her immediate location on several occasions as if he or someone else had been watching her.
Hyde denied ever having worked in a surveillance ring that spied on Yovanovitch. In an appearance on Sinclair Broadcasting’s America This Week, Hyde told host Eric Bolling that Hyde and Parnas “were just playing.”
After being pressed by Bolling, Hyde exploded, “Absolutely not, are you kidding me? … I’m a little landscaper from f—ing Connecticut.”
Parnas backed up Hyde in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Parnas said he understood Hyde to be messing around — probably because he was drunk at the time he sent the messages.
“I don’t believe it’s true. I think he was either drunk, or he was trying to make himself bigger than it was, so I didn’t take him seriously,” Parnas told Maddow.
