BIZARRE

Dutch Trump Supporter Who Claimed He Surveilled Yovanovitch Posed as DEA Agent

He was reportedly involved in sending cryptic text messages about the ambassador’s whereabouts during Giuliani’s alleged campaign to oust her.

A Dutch Trump superfan who claimed in text messages to have Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance while she was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has told people he was a U.S. federal law-enforcement officer, NBC News reported Wednesday. Anthony de Caluwe was reportedly romantically involved with a Ukrainian woman who frequently returned to her home country at the same time in early 2019 that he sent text messages about Yovanovitch’s alleged whereabouts in Kyiv to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde. He previously said he had “no connection” to Ukraine. De Caluwe, 54, is a citizen of the Netherlands as well as a fervent supporter of President Trump. The FBI has reportedly been sharing information with foreign governments regarding de Caluwe, who has allegedly presented himself as an agent for the FBI or CIA, as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Text messages released by House Intel investigators this month showed that Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas had received cryptic texts in March 2019 about Yovanovitch’s whereabouts from Hyde during the reported effort to oust the ambassador by Trump’s personal lawyer. It was later revealed that Hyde had purportedly been passing along the surveillance details he received from de Caluwe, whom he allegedly met at GOP events. De Caluwe, who reportedly has a history of attacking the ambassador on social media, has claimed the encrypted texts were just “ridiculous banter” with a friend. No hard evidence has indicated that de Caluwe definitely had a role in the surveillance operation on Yovanovitch, NBC News reported.