Remember Robert Hyde? He was the Connecticut contractor, congressional candidate and Trump mega-fan who somehow found his way into the Trump/Ukraine scandal. He was the guy updating Lev Parnas on the team he purportedly had surveilling US Ambassador Maria Yovanovich in Kyiv, Ukraine. Seems like a lifetime ago, right?
Well, he’s back. And he’s sitting on a stockpile of n95 masks. Or so he claims. This morning we saw this tweet in which Hyde announced he has ten million N95 and KN95 masks available for delivery, apparently through Finley Hyde & Associates, LLC the lobbying firm he established to provide access to Trump world power-brokers.
In other tweets, Hyde aggressively defended his efforts to put PPE into the hands of front line medical workers: “I’m connecting product to our loved ones on the frontlines that are in dire need. What are you doing beside opening your cock holster on social media? You want to to donate them? Great, make calls, but (sic) them and donate. In the meantime I’ll be saving lives by getting masks that nobody can get from countries that will sell to other countries before ours. You’re welcome. Stay home. Stay safe and healthy. Good luck.”
Let’s get masks to our frontline loved ones. Do you have some awesome contacts I can have? I can get as many masks as your hospitals, police, fire, “essential workers” states and companies need. Please email me at robhyde@finleyhyde.com pic.twitter.com/9mMocFBEeS
— HYDE for U.S. Congress (@rfhyde1) April 1, 2020
We wanted to find out how Hyde had managed to get hold of this amount of product when states, hospitals and the federal government are bending every sinew of power to acquire them.
When Josh Kovensky contacted Hyde to ask how he got the masks and how much he was selling them for the story changed. Hyde said he doesn’t actually have any masks but seems to be trying to set up as a middleman. “We don’t have them. Sourcing agents contacted us and we’ve been paying them up with hospitals etc” and then “I help locate to get into our country to help save lives of our loved ones on the front lines.”
When Kovensky pointed out that this seemed to contradict his public claims, Hyde responded negatively: “What’s it contradict? That we sourced them to America and frontline loved ones. Are you on crack? Go help people. They are dying.”
So unfortunately it appears that Hyde does not have ten or twenty million masks and likely has no masks.
