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MIAMI (AP) — On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified regarding his past interactions with David Rivera, a former Miami congressman, dating back nearly ten years. This testimony is linked to allegations that Rivera secretly lobbied for Venezuela’s government.
In 2022, Rivera and an associate faced charges of money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents after securing a $50 million lobbying contract from Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Rivera has denied any wrongdoing related to these allegations.
Rivera and his co-defendant allegedly attempted to facilitate meetings for then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, who currently serves as Venezuela’s acting president. These meetings were purportedly aimed at engaging with White House officials, members of Congress, and Exxon Mobil’s CEO in cities such as Dallas, New York, Washington, and Caracas.
Testifying in a crowded Miami federal courtroom with increased security measures, Rubio recounted his close friendship with Rivera. Their relationship began in the early 2000s when both served in the Florida Legislature for six years. The friendship continued when they both transitioned to Washington, with Rubio serving in the Senate and Rivera in the House, maintaining their connection through shared social gatherings.
Rubio explained that in July 2017, Rivera urgently contacted him, expressing a need to discuss Venezuela. The following morning, Rivera traveled to Washington for a meeting at Rubio’s home, where he disclosed his collaborations with Raul Gorrin, a Venezuelan media mogul and Rivera’s primary link to the Maduro government, regarding a plan to urge Maduro to relinquish power.
“I was skeptical,” said Rubio during his testimony, adding that the Maduro government was full of “double dealers” who were constantly pitching plans to betray Maduro.
“But if there was a 1% chance it was real, and I had a role to play alerting the White House, I was open to doing that,” he added.
Within days, borrowing talking points provided by Rivera, Rubio wrote and delivered a speech on the Senate floor 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. “No vengeance, no retribution.”
Rubio’s testimony is highly unusual. Not since Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan testified at a Mafia trial in 1983 has a sitting member of the president’s Cabinet taken the stand in a criminal trial. In the indictment against Rivera, there’s no indication that Rubio acted improperly as a senator at the time.
Prosecutors say that the purpose of the lobbying contract was to persuade the first Trump administration to normalize relations with Maduro’s government — a seemingly futile undertaking during the first Trump administration but one now within reach, albeit on unequal terms, following Maduro’s ouster and the ascent of his more pragmatic aide.
To cloak their activities, prosecutors said, the co-defendants and others set up a chat group called MIA — for Miami — in which they used Spanish-language code words like “Little Cuban” for Rubio, “The Lady in Red” for Rodríguez and “melons” for millions of dollars.
“This case is about two things: greed and betrayal,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said in his opening statement Monday. “The evidence will show that for $50 million these two defendants made a pact to secretly lobby for Nicolás Maduro” as well as for Rodríguez.
Rivera, 60, counters that his one-man firm, Interamerican Consulting, was hired by an American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company — not the company itself — and therefore did not need to register as a foreign agent.
His three-month contract, his attorney says, was focused exclusively on luring Exxon back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Separate and wholly distinct from that consulting work were his efforts with the Venezuelan opposition to pave the way for Maduro’s exit, Rivera’s defense said.
“The government’s theory is utterly preposterous,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said during his opening statement Monday, describing Rivera as a “freedom fighter” and “ardent opponent of communism wherever it rears its ugly head.”