Ex-GOP Rep. David Rivera convicted of secretly lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of Venezuela
Former Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., was found guilty in federal court in Miami on Friday on all counts in connection to him receiving a $50 million contract to secretly lobby U.S. officials to ease sanctions on Venezuela when Nicholas Maduro was in power.
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Rivera, a former roommate and longtime friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, faced charges of acting as an unregistered agent for Venezuela and conspiring to commit money laundering and tax evasion. He served in the House from 2011 to 2013 and previously served in Florida’s legislature.
The jury convicted both Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, at the end of a five-week trial that featured testimony from Rubio, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and a Washington lobbyist. They said during the trial they were shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera’s consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.
Prosecutors alleged that Rivera and Nuhfer tried to arrange meetings in the U.S. in 2017 for then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, now the acting president of Venezuela. The Justice Department said in a 2022 indictment that the “ultimate goal of these efforts was to garner political support” in the U.S. for a normalization of relations between the U.S. and Venezuela.
Prosecutors alleged that Rivera manipulated influential friends from his time in Congress, including Rubio and Sessions.
Rubio, who once co-owned a house with Rivera, testified during the trial in March about his interactions with the former congressman when Rubio served in the Senate. The secretary of state told the jury that he met in 2017 with Rivera, who told him that he was working on a plan to convince Maduro to step down. A few days later, Rubio delivered a Senate floor speech signaling the U.S. would not retaliate against Venezuelan government insiders who worked to push Maduro from power.
“He provided me with insight into some of the key phrases that regime insiders would’ve wanted to hear to know this was serious,” Rubio testified about Rivera. “No vengeance, no retribution.”
Throughout the case, Rivera denied wrongdoing, with his defense attorneys arguing his work focused on legitimate commercial, anti-communist, or “democracy-promotion” efforts.
Rivera faces a potentially long prison sentence. He had been out on bond, but Judge Melissa Damian ordered him taken into custody after the conviction Friday. Rivera faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case.
