BREAKING: Did Donald Trump put a hit on Marie Yovanovitch?

Incendiary title? Maybe. But it seems that Donald Trump's goons were monitoring US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch's movements around the time of the shakedown to dig up dirt on Joe Biden via his son Hunter, according to documents provided to the House by indicted mobster Lev Parnas.

New documents released by House Democrats on Tuesday offered fresh detail on the shadow diplomacy campaign at the center of President Trump’s impeachment, including text messages suggesting that the former United States ambassador to Ukraine was under surveillance while in Kyiv.

In a series of cryptic text messages, Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, communicated with another man who appeared to be monitoring the movements of the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch. The texts, exchanged in March on the WhatsApp messaging service, indicated that the other man, Robert F. Hyde, was in touch with people in Ukraine who were watching Ms. Yovanovitch.

“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” one message from Mr. Hyde to Mr. Parnas read.

The documents released by House Democrats don't go further into detail about why these thugs were monitoring Yovanovitch, or what they planned to do. One can, of course, make conjectures, based on the type of people who were spying on her, and their usual stock in trade. The majority of documents turned over by Lev Parnas haven't been released by the House, so it's plausible that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding the big reveal until the Senate trial.

But the information we have is damning enough, and is open to very few interpretations. The government of the United States targeted one of its own diplomats because she wouldn't be corrupt for the occupant in the White House. And she was being targeted in the crudest, most mobster-like fashion.

Our government is in the grips of a thugocracy. Trump is nothing but a minor crime boss who finds himself at the helm of the world's only empire. He knows no other way of life than extortion and intimidation, which he learned at the feet of Roy Cohn and his mob associates. And the State Department under Mike Pompeo, instead of protecting its official, spirited her away from her position.

Why is Parnas providing this information to the House? There is no honor among thieves. He was burned by his employers, and he wants his revenge. That this may help save the country is incidental. If Trump and Rudy Giuliani had stuck by him, he would have kept quiet. We are again fortunate that everyone involved in this crime spree is nothing buy a penny-ante thug who would normally be shaking down bodegas for protection money. They are so in over their heads that they've convinced themselves they're James Bond in delusion.

More will be coming out. And Mitch McConnell's position of whitewashing the whole affair will become increasingly untenable. Stay tuned.