Ukraine Opening New Investigation
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Date: January 16, 2020 09:57AM
Ukraine's interior ministry said it is opening a criminal investigation into the possible illegal surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch while she was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
The ministry in a statement said police had opened the investigation in light of text messages released by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee between two associates of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
In the messages, Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde appeared to suggest to Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman now at the center of the impeachment controversy, that he had people following Yovanovitch's movements.
Ukraine's interior ministry said it is opening a criminal investigation into the possible illegal surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch while she was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
The ministry in a statement said police had opened the investigation in light of text messages released by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee between two associates of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
In the messages, Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde appeared to suggest to Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman now at the center of the impeachment controversy, that he had people following Yovanovitch's movements.
MORE: Who is Marie Yovanovitch?
Ukrainian police are now looking to see if there was surveillance and, if so, whether it had violated Ukrainian law or international conventions obliging host countries to protect foreign diplomats there, the ministry said.
"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 said.
"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," the statement continues.
The ministry said investigators were examining whether any laws had been broken or if the messages had simply been "bravado."
The allegations that the Giuliani associates may have been spying on a U.S. diplomat are potentially explosive for Trump, coming as the trial for his impeachment begins in the Senate.
Parnas, a Soviet-born businessperson based in Florida, took part in Giuliani's campaign to press the Ukrainian government to open investigations into Trump's Democrat rival former Vice President Joe Biden.
Parnas has said he and Giuliani were seeking to have Yovanovitch removed as ambassador at the same time, having deemed her an obstacle to their effort. Yovanovitch was recalled abruptly by Trump before the end of her term last year and has testified in the impeachment inquiry that she believed she was the victim of a deliberate smear campaign.