Rubio To Take The Stand In Bombshell Corruption Trial

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will have another task added to his plate, but this one wasn’t ordered by President Donald Trump.

Rubio is expected to take the witness stand on Tuesday in the federal trial of a former Republican congressman who is accused of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The trial of David Rivera began on Monday in Miami with prosecutors alleging that Rivera “offered access” to U.S. politicians without registering as a foreign lobbyist and was paid $20 million by a Venezuelan state-owned company to attempt to improve U.S.-Venezuela relations, Reuters reported. Rivera and his co-defendant, Esther Nuhfer, met with U.S. lawmakers, including Rubio, as they allegedly attempted to persuade politicians to hold off on economic sanctions on Venezuela.

“They sold their loyalty. They offered access, the defendants did, to United States politicians that they’ve spent decades establishing relationships with,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said during opening statements on Monday.

“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,” Cruz added, according to the Associated Press.

Rivera allegedly convinced then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, who is now Venezuela’s acting leader, to award him a three-month $50 million contract in exchange for his lobbying. Rivera signed the contract in 2017, according to federal prosecutors. The allegations against Rivera stem from after he was in Congress, where he served just one term from 2011 to 2013. Rivera shared a home with Rubio in the early 2000s when they were both serving in the Florida legislature.

When Rubio takes the stand on Tuesday, he will become the first sitting Cabinet member to testify at a criminal trial since Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan testified during a mafia-related trial in 1983. The timing of the criminal trial is intriguing, given that Rubio is currently playing a major role in President Donald Trump’s Venezuela strategy following the capture of Maduro and the efforts to revitalize and oversee Venezuela’s oil industry.

Rubio’s testimony will likely focus on his 2017 meetings with Rivera when Rubio was serving in the U.S. Senate. During the first of those meetings, Rivera revealed details about working with Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who supposedly held vast influence inside the Venezuelan regime and was working to convince Maduro to hold fair elections, according to an indictment unsealed in 2022. Gorrín has also been charged in the United States with bribing Venezuelan officials.

Rivera and Gorrín also communicated in a private group chat with others and used code names for Maduro, whom they called “bus driver,” and Rodríguez, whom they referred to as “the lady in red.” According to the indictment, Rivera texted Rubio two days after the meeting, writing, “Remember, U.S. should facilitate, not just support, a negotiated solution. No vengeance, reconciliation.”

Rivera, alongside Gorrín and others, met with Rubio a second time and allegedly said in a private group chat with Gorrín that Maduro would have to pay him for setting up the meeting with the U.S. senator. Rivera and Gorrín also asked Texas Republican Congressman Pete Sessions to set up a meeting between Rodríguez and Exxon Mobil.

The defense argues that Rivera and Nuhfer were not required to register as foreign lobbyists under U.S. law because they were focused on commercial issues, such as convincing Exxon to move back to Venezuela, not on political lobbying, the Associated Press reported. Rivera’s defense also claims that because he was hired for consulting by the American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, he was not required to register as a foreign lobbyist.

Rivera’s defense attorney Ed Shohat told the jury on Monday, “Not one single policy of the U.S. was impacted by this case.”

The defense team wanted Maduro, who is awaiting his own trial in the United States, to testify, but the former dictator said he would exercise his Fifth Amendment right if called to testify. The defense team also sought to subpoena White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who was working as a lobbyist for Gorrín’s network at the time, to testify in the trial, but that effort was shot down.