“I have asked Rob Hyde to end his bid for Congress,” the chairman, J.R. Romano, wrote on Twitter. “His campaign is a distraction for the Democrats to raise money and falsely label all Republicans with his antics. In my view he is not helping other Republican candidates or @realDonaldTrump win.”

Hyde, who isn’t shy about posting colorful and profanity-laced rants on Twitter and sounds like a mini-Trump at times — was quick to fire back.

“JR RINO should resign from the @CTGOP ASAP,” he tweeted. “Never did anything but rig elections including his own and was a staunch advocate against @realDonaldTrump and still is.”

JR RINO should resign from the @CTGOP ASAP. Never did anything but rig elections including his own and was a staunch advocate against @realDonaldTrump and still is. — HYDE for U.S. Congress (@rfhyde1) January 15, 2020

The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a trove of new evidence in its impeachment inquiry, including text messages between Hyde and Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The communications appear to show that Hyde was working with Parnas to track Marie Yovanovitch, whom Giuliani was trying to oust as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

“Wow. Can’t believe Trumo [sic] hasn’t fired this bitch,” Hyde wrote in one encrypted message to Parnas. “I’ll get right in that.”

In other exchanges, Hyde appeared to provide continual updates on the physical whereabouts of Yovanovitch, who was abruptly recalled from Ukraine amid concerns about her safety. Yovanovitch testified in the impeachment inquiry last year that she felt frightened when she read the rough transcript of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president, in which he called her “bad news” and said she would “go through some things.” Yovanovitch’s attorney has called for an investigation into the communications between Hyde and Parnas.

“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” Hyde wrote in one message to Parnas. He followed up with other messages informing Parnas that “She’s next to the embassy” and “Not in the embassy.”

Hyde has dismissed the conversations as nothing more than idle talk with a “buddy” and maintains that he has never even been to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.