Former Rep. David Rivera of Florida, a man who built his political brand on being a fierce anti-Communist crusader, has been convicted by a federal jury in Miami of secretly lobbying for the Venezuelan government and laundering millions of dollars in the process. You really cannot make this stuff up. As The American Tribune reported, the former Republican congressman is now looking at a lengthy prison sentence and faces even more federal charges in D.C.
Judge Melissa Damian ordered Rivera taken into custody after determining he was a flight risk, largely because he had access to a large sum of money. Funny how that works. The guy who allegedly laundered millions suddenly has enough cash lying around that a judge thinks he might bolt.
The seven week trial peeled back the curtain on Miami's role as a hub for foreign influence campaigns aimed at reshaping U.S. policy toward Latin American countries. According to Politico, Rivera was recruited by then-Foreign Ministry official Delcy Rodriguez, who is now the acting president of Venezuela, to leverage his Republican connections and convince the first Trump administration to ease up on sanctions against the Maduro regime.
Here is where it gets truly spectacular. Prosecutors alleged that Rivera and a political consultant named Nuhfer manipulated influential friends, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, like "pawns on a chessboard." Both Rubio and Sessions testified at trial that they were stunned to learn about Rivera's consulting contract with a U.S. based affiliate of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA.
"As long as the money kept coming in, they didn't care from where," prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.
To keep the whole operation under wraps, prosecutors say Rivera created an encrypted chat group called MIA with Venezuelan media tycoon Raul Gorrin, who has also been charged in the United States with bribing top Venezuelan government officials. Rivera and Nuhfer never disclosed their lobbying work as required by law under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, reportedly because doing so would have destroyed Rivera's carefully cultivated image as an anti-Communist hero. Nothing says "anti-Communist hero" quite like secretly cashing checks from a Communist government.
According to NBC News, Rubio once co-owned a house with Rivera, who served in the House between 2011 and 2013. Rubio told the jury he met with Rivera in 2017 and was told the former congressman was working on a plan to convince Maduro to step down. Days later, Rubio gave a Senate floor speech signaling the U.S. would not retaliate against Venezuelan insiders working to remove Maduro from power.
The indictment contained 11 counts against Rivera. So the man who spent his career railing against Communism was, behind the scenes, on Communist payroll. If hypocrisy were an Olympic sport, this guy would be standing on the podium.
Read more American news stories at: The American Tribune
