Former GOP Rep. David Rivera sentenced to 10 years in prison for secret Venezuela lobbying
A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration.Republican David Rivera has been jailed since jurors found him guilty in May on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of his work for former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government.Rivera, 61, appeared stone-faced as Judge Melissa Damian denounced him for betraying his life’s mission, saying he would surely have been judged harshly his many friends had the millions of dollars come from the Cuban regime instead of its allies in Caracas.“Nobody would accept that’s ok and I don’t think this is different,” the judge said.“There’s no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime.”The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping US policy toward Latin America, highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for both anti-communist crusaders and corruption among its sizable exile population.It included testimony from President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Rep.
Pete Sessions of Texas and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified they felt betrayed when learning of Rivera’s mammoth consulting contract with a US-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.Attorneys for Rivera plan to appeal and in June applied for a presidential pardon.Rivera faces additional federal charges in Washington, DC, in a related foreign lobbying case.In an indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard line and crippling sanctions on Venezuela.As...