Giuliani associate may have surveilled ex-Ukraine ambassador, new impeachment evidence suggests

While the context surrounding the situation is limited, new impeachment evidence made available Tuesday suggests former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch may have had her movements tracked with the knowledge of a current GOP congressional candidate and an associate of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas, who has been indicted for funneling foreign money into U.S. elections and is known for aiding the former New York City mayor in his quest to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump's domestic political rivals, handed over evidence to House impeachment investigators this week in compliance with a congressional subpoena.

In the evidence Congress obtained there's a series of text messages between Parnas and Robert Hyde — who is currently running for a House seat in Connecticut as a Republican — concerning Yovanovitch. The ambassador was the subject of a Giuliani-orchestrated smear campaign and was eventually forced out of her role because of the perception she was undermining the Trump administration's policy in the region. In response to some articles Parnas sent to Hyde about Yovanovitch, Hyde referred to the ambassador using crude language before indicating he had people on the ground in Kyiv surveilling Yovanovitch. "They are willing to help if we/you would like a price," he wrote to Parnas.

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There aren't too many other details about the exchange, but Yovanovitch did testify last year that she was warned Giuliani and his associates "had plans" to "do things, including to me."