I’m sure it’s a coincidence. But still. The caliber of people in Trump’s orbit continues to amaze. Via, NBC:
The Dutch man who claimed to have Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance when she was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has been masquerading as a U.S. federal law enforcement officer and told people he was starting a tech company that could track movements electronically, according to interviews and documents obtained by NBC News.
And despite saying he had “no connection” to Ukraine, the man, Anthony de Caluwe, was romantically involved with a Ukrainian woman, who returns regularly to her home country, at the same time in early 2019 that he sent text messages about Yovanovitch’s purported whereabouts in Kyiv, according to two people who know de Caluwe and photographs obtained by NBC News.
[…]
The FBI has been sharing information with multiple foreign governments regarding de Caluwe, who is currently in Belgium, a source with knowledge of the coordination said. Since his texts about Yovanovitch came to light, the U.S. Embassy in Brussels has reached out to de Caluwe, who is cooperating, a spokeswoman for de Caluwe said…
Leland McKee, a Trump supporter and frequent guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, met de Caluwe in Orlando, Florida, in 2018 at the request of a mutual acquaintance. He said de Caluwe wanted him to invest in a “tracking thing” he was developing. “He said he was with the DEA and all that, law enforcement,” McKee said. “He was trying to solicit money from anyone he could get money from, and I knew there was something not quite right.”
Photos obtained by NBC News also show him wearing what appears to be a DEA badge. One person said de Caluwe flashed the badge when he identified himself to new people as a DEA agent and sought information about drug cases he was purportedly investigating.
De Caluwe told three people who spoke to NBC News that he’d spent years busting drug rings for the DEA in Latin America, including Venezuela and El Salvador. He told at least two people that his dog, a Dalmatian named Maximus, was trained to sniff out drugs. Photos show that he dressed the dog in a harness identifying it as a DEA police canine…
Karyn Turk, de Caluwe’s spokeswoman, confirmed that he “did work in El Salvador,” but she declined to say whether he had worked for the DEA there or elsewhere. “Any work that he did for the government would be confidential,” Turk said. “Our client is always interested in serving the best interest of America and keeping American interests safe.”
In his WhatsApp profile, screenshots obtained by NBC News show, de Caluwe identified himself as “Anthony DEA/K9 Unit.” He posted numerous photos of himself on social media wearing clothing with DEA and FBI markings, including photos posted on an Instagram account under the handle “AnthonyFBI.”
He’s described as being a fanatical Trump follower and he was in attendance at Trump functions including at Mar-a-lago. How many of these guys are there?