{"id":203031,"date":"2026-03-23T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203031\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:12:08","slug":"rubio-to-testify-in-trial-of-former-roommate-accused-of-secretly-lobbying-for-venezuela-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203031\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio to testify in trial of former roommate accused of secretly lobbying for Venezuela – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 The federal trial of a former Miami congressman accused of secretly lobbying<\/a> for Venezuela\u2019s government during the first Trump administration began Monday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio set to testify over his interactions with his old friend.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege David Rivera<\/a> was a hired gun for former President\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, leveraging Republican connections from his time in Congress to push the White House to abandon its hard line on Venezuela\u2019s socialist government.<\/p>\n

Rivera, who at one time had been Rubio\u2019s roommate in Florida, allegedly persuaded then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 now Venezuela\u2019s acting president \u2014 to award him a $50 million lobbying contract to be paid by state oil company PDVSA. As part of the alleged foreign influence campaign, prosecutors say Rivera was aided by\u00a0Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions\u00a0and a convicted Cali cartel associate as he sought\u00a0meetings with the White House and Exxon Mobil\u00a0on Maduro\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

The trial offers a rare glimpse into the often unseemly role Miami \u2014 long a haven for exiles, corruption and anti-communist crusaders \u2014 plays in shaping U.S. policy in Latin America. As such, it is perhaps fitting that Rubio,\u00a0Miami\u2019s most prominent politician, is set to take the stand Tuesday about his meetings with Rivera while the former congressman and an associate were allegedly helping Maduro mount a charm offensive in Washington.<\/p>\n

Also likely to face scrutiny is Rodr\u00edguez, who relied on Rivera to set up meetings in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas in a bid to build U.S. support for normalizing relations with Venezuela \u2014 an effort that failed at the time but now appears within reach, albeit on unequal terms, following Maduro\u2019s ouster and the ascent of his\u00a0more pragmatic aide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about two things: greed and betrayal,\u201d prosecutor Roger Cruz said in his opening statement Monday. \u201cThe evidence will show that for $50 million these two defendants made a pact to secretly lobby for Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, the communist director, and his second in command Delcy Rodr\u00edguez.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indictment details alleged covert lobbying and money-laundering scheme<\/p>\n

An 11-count indictment, unsealed in 2022, charges Rivera and Miami political consultant Esther Nuhfer with\u00a0money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that to hide their work, Rivera set up an encrypted chat group called MIA \u2014 for Miami \u2014 with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Ra\u00fal Gorr\u00edn, who was subsequently\u00a0charged in the U.S. with bribing\u00a0top Venezuelan officials.<\/p>\n

Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the \u201cbus driver,\u201d Sessions \u201cSombrero,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez \u201cThe Lady in Red,\u201d and millions of dollars \u201cmelons,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Rivera, 60, denies wrongdoing. His attorneys counter that his one-man firm, Interamerican Consulting, was hired by an American subsidiary of Venezuela\u2019s state-owned oil company \u2014 not PDVSA itself \u2014 and therefore did not need to register as a foreign agent.<\/p>\n

His three-month, $50 million contract, they say, was focused exclusively on luring Exxon back to Venezuela \u2014 commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like a murder case without a murder, a drugs case without drugs, a kidnapping case without a kidnapping,\u201d Rivera\u2019s defense attorney Ed Shohat said in his opening statement to the 12-person jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing happened,\u201d he added. \u201cNot one single policy of the U.S. was impacted by this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera\u2019s meetings with Rubio and others was wholly distinct from that consulting work, Shohat said, and tied to efforts he undertook with Maduro\u2019s opponents to usher in leadership less hostile to the U.S.<\/p>\n

He described Rivera as a \u201cstaunch freedom fighter\u201d and ardent opponent of communism who would never do anything to benefit Maduro. \u201cThe government\u2019s theory is utterly preposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs in a\u00a0parallel civil case\u00a0accuse Rivera of doing little of the promised work and using the contract as cover for illegal lobbying. Of the roughly $20 million he received, $3.75 million went to a South Florida company that maintained Gorr\u00edn\u2019s luxury yacht.<\/p>\n

\u2018No turkey\u2019 without Rubio<\/p>\n

Rubio\u2019s expected testimony is highly unusual \u2014 not since Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan\u00a0testified at a mafia trial in 1983\u00a0has a sitting member of the president\u2019s Cabinet taken the stand in a criminal trial.<\/p>\n

While Rubio isn\u2019t charged and there\u2019s no indication in the indictment that he acted improperly as a senator at the time, prosecutors say Rivera viewed him as a key ally in his outreach to the White House. For Rubio, prosecutors said in a pre-trial hearing last week, contact with Gorr\u00edn offered a backchannel to Caracas at a time U.S. authorities had detected a possible death threat against him from Venezuelan socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello.<\/p>\n

Rivera and Rubio met at the senator\u2019s Washington home on July 9, 2017, according to the indictment. Rivera, the indictment says, told Rubio that he was working with Gorr\u00edn, who had persuaded Maduro to accept a deal in which he would hold free and fair elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember, U.S. should facilitate, not just support, a negotiated solution,\u201d Rivera texted Rubio two days later as the senator was set to meet Trump, the indictment says. \u201cNo vengeance, reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a second meeting between Rubio, Rivera, Gorr\u00edn and others, Rivera remarked in the chat that the bus driver \u2014 Maduro \u2014 would have to pay him for setting up the meeting with Rubio. Without the senator\u2019s support, Rivera said, there would be \u201cno turkey,\u201d he wrote. At the same time, the group was trying to secure a meeting with White House aide Kellyanne Conway.<\/p>\n

The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Later that month,\u00a0Trump sanctioned Maduro\u00a0and labeled him a \u201cdictator,\u201d launching a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign to unseat the president. Rubio took to the Venezuelan airwaves to press the White House\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who I am sure is watching, the current path you are on will not end well for you,\u201d Rubio said July 31, 2017, in a rare 10-minute address to the Venezuelan people that aired on Gorr\u00edn\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

The State Department declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Outreach to Exxon for Rodr\u00edguez<\/p>\n

After the contract was signed, Rivera and Gorr\u00edn arranged a meeting in New York City between Rodr\u00edguez, then foreign minister and a PDVSA board member, and Sessions, whose Dallas-area district included Exxon\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

Later, Sessions tried to\u00a0broker a meeting for Rodr\u00edguez\u00a0with Darren Woods, who had succeeded Trump\u2019s then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as CEO of Exxon. Rodr\u00edguez was looking to resolve a long-running investment dispute and enroll Exxon in reviving the OPEC nation\u2019s collapsing oil industry. The meeting never happened as Exxon lawyers rebuffed the outreach.<\/p>\n

Almost a year after helping Rivera make inroads with Exxon, Sessions\u00a0secretly traveled to Caracas\u00a0for a meeting with Maduro arranged by Gorr\u00edn and Rivera, the indictment says. As part of the effort, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.<\/p>\n

The defense team also wanted Maduro and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to testify. Maduro, through a lawyer, said he would invoke his constitutional right to remain silent if compelled, while prosecutors successfully quashed an attempt to subpoena Wiles, who was a registered lobbyist for Gorr\u00edn\u2019s Globovision network at the same time the media magnate was working with Rivera.<\/p>\n

Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator. During that time he shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became Florida House speaker.<\/p>\n

Rivera has previously faced controversy, including allegations he\u00a0secretly funded a Democratic<\/a> spoiler candidate\u00a0in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped the case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated \u2014 but never charged \u2014 for campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida legislature.<\/p>\n

Rivera has denied any wrongdoing and said both investigations were politically motivated.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

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