![\"Secretary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268168678.jpg\" "\\"Secretary")
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks on a phone as he leaves the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building on March 24, 2026, in Miami. <\/p>\n
Joe Raedle<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
On Tuesday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio returned to his hometown \u2014 not to talk about the Iran war, Venezuela or his pressure campaign on Cuba. Rubio was summoned to a downtown federal courtroom to testify in the criminal trial of a former Miami congressman and his once \u201cvery close\u201d friend, in Rubio\u2019s own words.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. David Rivera and another defendant are on trial, accused of acting as unregistered foreign agents<\/a> for the Venezuelan government almost a decade ago during Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s regime. Rubio is not accused of any wrongdoing. But Rivera\u2019s scandals have hung around Rubio\u2019s neck for years, making their friendship a potential liability for the former U.S. senator who certainly still has presidential aspirations.<\/p>\n The testimony in a criminal trial by a sitting U.S. Cabinet member felt surreal. This is one of the top people in the federal government whose role includes handling a foreign war and crafting U.S. foreign policy at a time of U.S.-generated world turmoil. But in the courtroom on Tuesday, Rubio was back to his Miami start as an ambitious young politician.<\/p>\n Rubio sat in the witness stand stone-faced for most of his testimony. There was, however, the occasional chuckle \u2014 \u201cI\u2019ve got two jobs,\u201d he joked, referring to his dual role as secretary of state and as President Trump\u2019s national security advisor.<\/p>\n It was clear from watching the court proceedings how the paths of Rubio and Rivera diverged after a similar start. The two men, both Cuban American, rose in Miami and Florida Republican politics together, becoming friends in the 1990s. They co-owned a home in Tallahassee while serving in the Florida House in the 2000s. They knew each other\u2019s families and attended weddings together. When Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, Rivera was elected to the U.S. House, though he only served one two-year term while Rubio was reelected twice.<\/p>\n But on Tuesday, as they sat at opposite sides of the courtroom, Rubio\u2019s star power was evident. U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian said twice that Rubio looked \u201cgreat\u201d in older photos that Rivera\u2019s team wanted to enter into the record showing the two men socializing. Rivera\u2019s defense lawyer even asked Rubio to sign a copy of his 2012 book, \u201cAn American Son,\u201d which the defense presented as evidence of the close relationship between Rubio and Rivera. (Rubio mentioned Rivera in the book\u2019s acknowedgements.)<\/p>\n At the core of Rubio\u2019s testimony were two 2017 meetings the then-U.S. senator had with Rivera in Washington, D.C., involving brokering a deal for a democratic transition in Venezuela. In the first one, Rivera told Rubio that \u201cinsiders\u201d from Maduro\u2019s regime wanted Rubio to deliver a letter from Maduro to Trump signaling Maduro\u2019s willingness to hold free and fair elections, Rubio said. The second meeting included other people, including Rivera\u2019s co-defendant, Esther Nuhfer, and Venezuelan businessman Ra\u00fal Gorr\u00edn, who was purportedly helping broker a deal for Maduro\u2019s exit. Rubio said the gathering was a \u201ctotal waste of my time.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Rubio never received the promised letter and U.S.-Venezuela relations continued to deteriorate. Earlier this year, the U.S. captured Maduro, who\u2019s been replaced by his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as interim president.<\/p>\n Rubio told the prosecution he would not have accepted the meetings had he known that Rivera had a $50 million contract with the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela\u2019s national oil company.<\/p>\n Rubio\u2019s testimony was crucial to the case because prosecutors allege these meetings were part of Rivera\u2019s efforts to curry favor on behalf of Maduro. Rivera has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his defense contends his relationship with Rubio, a staunch opponent of socialism and the Venezuelan regime, shows he did not work for the Venezuelan strongman.<\/p>\n That same relationship has followed Rubio ever since Rivera started facing legal problems<\/a>. In 2022, a federal judge ordered Rivera to pay a $456,000 fine for making campaign contributions under someone else\u2019s name \u2014 the judgment was reversed on appeal<\/a> two years later. Before that, he avoided charges involving a casino consulting deal that sparked Internal Revenue Service attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n If the old saying, \u201cdon\u2019t forget where you came from,\u201d is true, Rubio is learning that the hard way.<\/p>\n BEHIND THE STORY MORE <\/a> Who decides the political endorsements? <\/p>\n