MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was convicted Friday in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on behalf of Venezuela during the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Jurors found Republican David Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, guilty on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of their work for former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro’s government.<\/p>\n
Much as he did throughout the trial, Rivera stood stone-faced as the jury delivered its verdict.<\/p>\n
Rivera had been out on bond, but Judge Melissa Damian ordered him taken into custody, finding that he posed a flight risk because he has access to sizable funds, faces a potentially long prison sentence, and faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case.<\/p>\n
The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, one highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for corruption and anti-Communist crusaders among its sizable exile population.<\/p>\n
It included testimony from Rubio, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and a top Washington lobbyist \u2014 all of whom testified that they were shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera\u2019s consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela\u2019s state oil company, PDVSA.<\/p>\n
In an 11-count indictment unsealed in 2022<\/a>, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 now Venezuela\u2019s acting president \u2014 to work Republican connections from Rivera’s time in Congress to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard-line stance and ease crippling sanctions on Venezuela.<\/p>\n As part of the charm offensive, prosecutors alleged, Rivera and Nuhfer, a political consultant, manipulated influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions,<\/a> like \u201cpawns on a chess board.” The goal: to try and normalize relations with the new Trump administration at a time when the Maduro government was buffeted by serious accusations of human rights violations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as the money kept coming in, they didn\u2019t care from where,\u201d prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.<\/p>\n \u2018Massive secret\u2019 threatened to damage Rivera’s political career<\/p>\n But the two held onto the \u201cmassive secret\u201d and didn’t disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera’s political career as an anti-Communist stalwart, Cruz said.<\/p>\n To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also 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 charged in the U.S. with bribing<\/a> top 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 copies of text messages presented to the jury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was all about La Luz,\u201d Cruz said, referring to the Spanish word for light, which Rivera and others repeatedly used to discuss payments from Caracas.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Rivera and Nuhfer said the two acted in good faith and believed they were under no requirement to disclose their work. The three-month, $50 million contract with Rivera’s one-man consulting firm, they say, was focused exclusively on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela \u2014 commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera’s meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which occurred after the consulting contract had expired and was focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was working every possible angle to get Nicol\u00e1s Maduro out,\u201d defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments. \u201cThere was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.\u201d<\/p>\n Nuhfer’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, likened the government’s case to the 17th century Salem witch trials, presuming ill intent that was belied by the flimsiest of evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cMy client does not have a dark heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Exxon meetings for Rodr\u00edguez<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with New York-based PDV USA as cover for illegal lobbying.<\/p>\n Once exposed, the partners tried to hide the work \u2014 backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorr\u00edn\u2019s luxury yacht.<\/p>\n The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodr\u00edguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, the two roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> with the CEO of ExxonMobil that had succeeded Trump\u2019s then-secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. After a secret meeting in Caracas<\/a> with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.<\/p>\n The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro<\/a> and labeled him a \u201cdictator,\u201d launching a \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign to unseat the president.<\/p>\n However, nearly a decade later, Rodr\u00edguez has emerged as the second Trump administration’s trusted partner<\/a> after the U.S. military’s ousting of Maduro.<\/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 the Florida House speaker.<\/p>\n