MIAMI \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified Tuesday over his interactions with former Miami congressman David Rivera nearly a decade ago, when his longtime friend was accused of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rivera and an associate were charged in 2022 with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent after being awarded a $50 million lobbying contract from Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s government. Rivera denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of his work, Rivera and his co-defendant are accused of trying to arrange meetings for then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 now Venezuela\u2019s acting president \u2014 in Dallas, New York, Washington and Caracas, Venezuela, with White House officials, members of Congress and the chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rubio, testifying in a packed federal courtroom in Miami with heightened security, said he and Rivera became \u201cvery close\u201d when both overlapped for six years as members of the Florida Legislature in the early 2000s. They stayed close when they went to Washington at the same time \u2014 Rubio elected to the Senate, Rivera to the House \u2014 and shared friends and family gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July 2017, Rubio said he got a call from Rivera saying he needed to see him urgently to discuss Venezuela. The next morning, a Sunday, Rivera traveled to Washington and at a meeting at his home said he was working with Raul Gorrin, a media magnate in Venezuela who was Rivera\u2019s main conduit to the Maduro government, on a plan to persuade Maduro to step aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was skeptical,\u201d said Rubio during his testimony, adding that the Maduro government was full of \u201cdouble dealers\u201d who were constantly pitching plans to betray Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe provided me with insight into some of the key phrases that regime insiders would\u2019ve wanted to hear to know this was serious,\u201d Rubio testified. \u201cNo vengeance, no retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rubio\u2019s testimony is highly unusual. Not since Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan testified at a Mafia trial in 1983 has a sitting member of the president\u2019s Cabinet taken the stand in a criminal trial. In the indictment against Rivera, there\u2019s no indication that Rubio acted improperly as a senator at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors say that the purpose of the lobbying contract was to persuade the first Trump administration to normalize relations with Maduro\u2019s government \u2014 a seemingly futile undertaking during the first Trump administration but one now within reach, albeit on unequal terms, following Maduro\u2019s ouster and the ascent of his more pragmatic aide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To cloak their activities, prosecutors said, the co-defendants and others set up a chat group called MIA \u2014 for Miami \u2014 in which they used Spanish-language code words like \u201cLittle Cuban\u201d for Rubio, \u201cThe Lady in Red\u201d for Rodr\u00edguez and \u201cmelons\u201d for millions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\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\u201d as well as for Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rivera, 60, counters that his one-man firm, Interamerican Consulting, was hired by an American subsidiary of Venezuela\u2019s state-owned oil company \u2014 not the company itself \u2014 and therefore did not need to register as a foreign agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His three-month contract, his attorney says, was focused exclusively on luring Exxon back to Venezuela \u2014 commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Separate and wholly distinct from that consulting work were his efforts with the Venezuelan opposition to pave the way for Maduro\u2019s exit, Rivera\u2019s defense said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s theory is utterly preposterous,\u201d defense attorney Ed Shohat said during his opening statement Monday, describing Rivera as a \u201cfreedom fighter\u201d and \u201cardent opponent of communism wherever it rears its ugly head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n