David Rivera, a former Republican congressman from southern Florida, is set to stand trial in Miami on charges that he took $20 million from Venezuelan state-owned companies in 2017 to lobby U.S. officials against further sanctions on the Maduro regime, all without registering as a foreign agent.
Rivera, 60, has pleaded not guilty to 10 criminal counts, including failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His co-defendant, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, has also pleaded not guilty.
The case dates back to the early months of President Trump's first term. According to the indictment, a Venezuelan businessman approached Rivera in February 2017 seeking help lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of the Venezuelan government. What followed, prosecutors allege, was a months-long effort to broker high-level meetings between Venezuelan officials and American lawmakers while Maduro's government was cracking down on street protests back home.
According to Newsmax, Prosecutors say Rivera arranged a meeting in April between Delcy Rodriguez, then Venezuela's foreign minister, and a U.S. congressman from Texas. In June 2017, he allegedly arranged another meeting between the Venezuelan businessman and a U.S. senator from Florida.
The indictment did not name the businessman, the congressman, or the senator. But Rivera's own lawyers identified the businessman in other court papers as Raul Gorrin, the owner of Venezuelan television station Globovision. They also identified the senator as Marco Rubio, now U.S. Secretary of State and a onetime political ally of Rivera's.
That detail alone makes the trial worth watching. Prosecutors indicated they may call Rubio as a witness.
According to prosecutors, Rodriguez directed U.S. oil refiner Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, to sign a consulting contract with Rivera's company. The alleged $20 million payment flowed from Venezuelan state-owned companies. Rivera, prosecutors say, never registered as a foreign agent as required by FARA.
Rivera's defense lawyer, Ed Shohat, told Reuters that Rivera did not have to register under FARA because he was paid by a U.S. affiliate of PDVSA, not directly by the Venezuelan government. Lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer framed it more bluntly:
"The prosecutors in this case have it completely wrong and backwards."
That's a bold claim when $20 million is involved, and the money traces back to a state-owned oil company controlled by a dictator. Whether a jury finds the distinction between PDVSA's U.S. affiliate and PDVSA itself persuasive enough to acquit on all 10 counts is the central question of this trial.
Rivera represented southern Florida in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2013. He was arrested in 2022 and has been free on a $200,000 bond since then.
The trial arrives at an unusual moment in U.S.-Venezuela relations. U.S. special forces captured Maduro on January 3, and Rodriguez has since taken over as Venezuela's interim president. Trump has praised Rodriguez since she assumed power.
None of that changes the facts of the 2017 case. Trump ramped up sanctions on Venezuela despite the alleged lobbying effort, which means whatever Rivera was doing either didn't work or never reached the people who mattered. The sanctions went forward. The policy held.
But the trial could shed light on Rodriguez's own role in the alleged scheme, specifically her involvement in directing Citgo to sign the consulting contract with Rivera's company. That's a detail with diplomatic implications now that she occupies a position of power in Caracas.
FARA prosecutions have become increasingly common in recent years, and for good reason. The law exists to ensure Americans know when someone is working on behalf of a foreign government. It's a transparency statute, not an obscure technicality. When a former member of Congress allegedly takes $20 million from a hostile regime's state oil apparatus and then arranges meetings with sitting lawmakers, the public has a right to know who is pulling the strings.
Conservatives have long argued that Washington's revolving door between public service and foreign influence peddling corrodes trust in government. This case is Exhibit A. A Republican congressman leaves office and, within a few years, allegedly becomes a $20 million conduit for the Maduro regime. Party affiliation doesn't earn anyone a pass on that.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Venezuela's information ministry. A lawyer for Gorrin also did not respond.
The silence is its own kind of statement. The trial starts Monday. The facts will speak soon enough.