Impeachment investigators released texts earlier this week suggesting Hyde was tracking the movements of the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENTThe FBI paid a visit to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde's Connecticut home and business on Thursday, a senior law enforcement official said.
The agent's visit comes days after the House Intelligence Committee released texts Hyde sent an associate of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani suggesting he was surveilling then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
A spokesperson for the FBI field office in New Haven, Connecticut declined to comment.
Hyde told NBC News earlier this week that he was drunk when he sent the texts to Giuliani's now-indicted associate Lev Parnas. In an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, Parnas called Hyde a "weird" character he met at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., and doubted that Hyde was actually surveilling Yovanovitch.
"Well, I don't believe it's true," he said of Hyde's claims of tracking Yovanovitch. "I think he was either drunk or he was trying to make himself bigger than he was, so I didn't take it seriously."
Democrats have called for an investigation into Hyde's claims from his text messages with Parnas. Ukraine announced Thursday it is investigating the allegations.