As Republican Robert Hyde fires back on social media, NBC Connecticut has learned that law enforcement is keeping a close eye on the Simsbury man.
NBC News has confirmed that the FBI visited Hyde’s Simsbury home and Avon office, Thursday.
The Simsbury Police were also called there last year, once by Hyde himself to turn in half a dozen firearms, and another time after “unsettling” behavior was reported by a local church.
Last June, the First Church of Christ complained to police that Hyde had begun attending Sunday services and taking video of himself for his Congressional campaign, according to documents obtained by NBC Connecticut. According to the police report, the church requested an officer ask Hyde not to return.
That same month, Simsbury police were at Hyde’s home for a different matter: He called officers saying he’d been ordered to turn over all of his firearms ammunition due to a protective order against him.
Hyde is one of four Republicans running for freshman Democratic Congresswoman Jahana Hayes’s seat. This week, House Democrats released a trove of encrypted text messages between Hyde and Lev Parnas, a former aide to Rudy Guiliani, the president’s personal lawyer. Hyde appeared to give updates on then-US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
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An example of those messages appears below:
Hyde: “She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Her computer is off.”
Hyde: “We have a person inside.” ”They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.” “Guess you can do anything in Ukraine with money ... is what I was told.”
Parnas: “lol.”
Democrats accuse the Trump administration of getting rid of Yovanovitch in an effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings. Parnas, who has been indicted on campaign finance violations, now says the president was in on the plan.
NBC Connecticut tried several times this week to speak with Hyde both in person and over the phone. In a series of tweets Friday, Hyde appeared to turn on Parnas, calling him a scumbag and a con man.
“I don’t have ties to Ukraine. I don’t even know if Lev’s Ukranian, but he’s the only one I know, or knew,” he said in an expletive-riddled rant on Twitter.
Hyde was arraigned last November on the charge of violation of a restraining order in connection with an August 2019 incident that occurred in Melrose, Massachusetts.
A spokesperson for the Malden State’s Attorney’s office told NBC Connecticut News that during a routine appearance yesterday, a prosecutor made a verbal motion to revoke Hyde’s bail for violating the conditions of his release.
Hyde is due back on court March 6.
