Rubio testifying today in criminal trial of ex-congressman accused of illegal lobbying for Venezuela

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is testifying in federal court Tuesday in the ongoing criminal trial of former Florida Congressman David Rivera, who is accused of secretly lobbying for the Venezuelan government during the first Trump administration.

Federal prosecutors allege that Rivera worked alongside his codefendant, Esther Nuhfer, to influence the first Trump administration on behalf of then-Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez with the goal of lowering political tensions and easing sanctions between the South American country and the U.S. Rodriguez is now the interim president, after the U.S. removed Maduro from power in January and brought him to the U.S. for prosecution on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. 

In 2022, Rivera and Nuhfer were indicted in the Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office on money laundering charges and for failing to register as a foreign agent. Prosecutors allege that the pair were hired in a $50 million contract in exchange for three months of lobbying work in 2017 on behalf of a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Venezuela state oil company, PDVSA, which operates under the name CITGO. 

In the indictment, Rivera and Nuhfer are accused of attempting to lobby Rubio, then a Republican senator from Miami, and former White House advisor Kellyanne Conway on behalf of people in the highest ranks of the Venezuelan government. The attempts to meet Conway were unsuccessful, prosecutors said, but added that the pair did arrange two meetings with Rubio, who is a longtime friend of Rivera's and had been an outspoken critic of the Maduro regime.

Rubio, who is currently heavily involved in the Trump administration's diplomatic efforts regarding the war in Iran, is set to be the first sitting member of the president's Cabinet to take the stand in a criminal trial since 1983. Rubio isn't charged with a crime in the case and has not been accused of doing anything illegal in his interactions with Rivera. 

Rubio was called to the stand at 9:56 a.m. and sworn in one minute later. When asked if he was currently employed, Rubio answered, "I am the Secretary of State of the United States and the president's national security advisor."

"I have two jobs," he said to laughter in the courtroom. 

Rubio and Rivera are former housemates who lived together in Tallahassee when they both served in the Florida state legislature, and Nuhfer was a past political adviser to both Rivera and Rubio.

In an interview with CBS News Miami before Rivera was indicted, Rubio said that Rivera's lobbying work had "nothing to do" with him or their relationship.

"He's someone I've known for a very long time. We've worked closely but not on this. And there's not a single person claiming otherwise," Rubio said.

"This case is about two things: greed and betrayal," prosecutor Roger Cruz said in his opening statement Monday, the Associated Press reported. "The evidence will show that for $50 million these two defendants made a pact to secretly lobby for Nicolás Maduro, the communist director, and his second-in-command Delcy Rodríguez."

Rivera has denied wrongdoing. The Associated Press reported that Rivera's attorneys argued in their opening statement that Rivera's lobbying was exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act, because it was focused on bringing the oil company Exxon back to Venezuela, for the subsidiary, which is based out of Texas.

"This is like a murder case without a murder, a drugs case without drugs, a kidnapping case without a kidnapping," Rivera's attorney Ed Shohat said in his opening statement Monday, the Associated Press reported, adding that "not one single policy" in the U.S. was impacted by Rivera's work.

Shohat argued Monday that Rivera's meetings with Rubio were unrelated to the consulting work on behalf of the Maduro regime, the Associated Press reported, and allegedly focused on bringing Exxon back to Venezuela.