Former US congressman sentenced to 10 years for lobbying for Venezuela

Former US Congressman David Rivera was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for illegally lobbying US officials to ease pressure on ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Rivera, a Republican who represented southern Florida in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, was convicted at trial in May of lobbying US officials on Venezuela's behalf in 2017 without registering as a foreign lobbyist as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The sentence was handed down by US District Judge Melissa Damian at a hearing in federal court in Miami. Prosecutors with the Miami US Attorney's office had urged Damian to impose a "significant term of incarceration," stating Rivera acted on behalf of a "hostile foreign government" and was paid $20 million by the US subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company.

Rivera, 61, appeared stone-faced as Judge Damian denounced him for betraying his life's mission, saying he would surely have been judged harshly by 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."

Rivera's lawyers argued he had been working to help Venezuela's opposition remove Maduro from power, not benefit his government. Defense lawyers noted that Rivera was charged in 2022, during Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, and that Republican President Donald Trump has deemphasized FARA cases.