Jury convicts former Florida congressman in Venezuela lobbying case

A jury on Friday found former Florida Congressman David Rivera guilty of conspiracy, failing to register as a foreign agent and other crimes related to lobbying US officials on behalf of the Venezuelan government.

Prosecutors said Venezuela's state-run oil company hired Rivera's consulting firm for a $50m (£37m) fee to lobby members of Congress to help improve US relations with Venezuela.

The six-week trial saw testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a friend of Rivera's, as well as Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, both of whom said they had no idea of Rivera's lobbying.

Defense lawyers had said the lobbying was for a US subsidiary of the oil company, not the Venezuelan government.

Rivera, who served in Congress from 2011 to 2013, was ordered to be detained after prosecutors argued he posed a flight risk. He showed little emotion when the verdict was read, according to US media outlets.

Jurors also convicted Rivera's associate, political consultant Esther Nuhfer.

Federal prosecutors in Florida said Rivera and Nuhfer engaged in a "secret political influence campaign", receiving a $50m contract for three months of work on behalf of a US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA, which is also known as Citgo.

"As long as the money kept coming in, they didn't care from where," prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.

Prosecutors alleged that, in 2017 and 2018, at the behest of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government, Rivera and Nuhfer attempted to lobby Rubio - then still a senator and former housemate of Rivera's - as well as Kellyanne Conway, a prominent former White House advisor.

The lobbying came as relations between the two countries were tense during President Donald Trump's first administration, when he imposed sanctions on Venezuela.

Defense lawyers for Rivera and Nuhfer argued that the pair did not need to register as foreign agents because their contract was with a US-based subsidiary of a Venezuelan state company.

An attorney for Rivera also said that his client was actually focused on trying to oust Maduro rather than improve US-Venezuela ties.

"He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out," defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments, according to the Associated Press. "There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations."

In January, Trump launched a military strike in Venezuela leading to the capture of Maduro, who is awaiting trial alongside his wife in New York on drug-related charges.

Rubio, who was not implicated in the wrongdoing, testified during the trial that he was close friends with Rivera but was unaware he was working as a lobbyist.

"He's someone I've known for a long time," Rubio told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, in an interview before the trial. "We've worked closely together but not on this, and there's not a single person claiming otherwise."