By Luc Cohen
MIAMI, March 24 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to testify on Tuesday in former U.S. Congressman David Rivera’s criminal trial on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Rubio’s testimony will briefly take him out of Washington, where he has been engaged in high-level diplomacy around U.S. President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, and into the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, his hometown and where his political career began.
U.S. prosecutors say Rivera, who represented southern Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, lobbied U.S. politicians in 2017 to relax pressure on Maduro without disclosing that he was paid $20 million by a subsidiary of a Venezuelan state-owned company, a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Among the politicians both prosecutors and Rivera’s defense lawyers say he met with at the time was Rubio, his onetime roommate and then a U.S. senator for Florida. Rubio and Rivera are both Cuban-American Republicans who have been outspoken critics of left-wing governments in Cuba and Venezuela throughout their careers.
RIVERA SAYS HE TRIED TO HELP VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION
Prosecutors say Rivera met with Rubio twice in 2017 and promoted a negotiated solution to escalating U.S. tensions with Maduro, without disclosing that he had been indirectly paid by Venezuela’s government.
“You’re going to hear how he would not have sat down with his old friend if he knew that David Rivera was secretly working for Venezuela,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said in his opening statement on Monday.
Rivera has pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and money laundering. His lawyer, Edward Shohat, said in his opening statement that he had been trying to help the Venezuelan opposition get Maduro out of power.
Shohat said Rivera’s interactions with Rubio were separate from his contract with Citgo Petroleum, a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. He said Rivera’s work for Citgo related to business, not politics, and so he did not have to register as a foreign agent.
“David Rivera had no reason to tell Rubio about that contract,” Shohat said.
Referring to Rivera’s two meetings with Rubio, Shohat said, “Both of them were about working with the Venezuelan opposition.”
Despite the alleged lobbying effort, Trump ramped up financial sanctions on Venezuela during his first term.
U.S. special forces captured Maduro in a January 3 raid on Caracas and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in MiamiEditing by Rod Nickel)
