MIAMI: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified on Tuesday that his longtime friend and former U.S. Congressman David Rivera did not tell him that he had a $50-million contract with a company owned by the Venezuelan state when he took a meeting about Venezuela with Rivera in 2017.
Rivera, 60, is standing trial on federal criminal charges of acting as an unregistered agent of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government to try to ease U.S. pressure on the country. Rivera has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers say he was working to help the opposition get rid of Maduro.
Rubio’s testimony has briefly taken 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.
Rubio told jurors that Rivera, in a meeting in July 2017, had told him that he was in touch with insiders in Venezuela who had convinced Maduro to step aside.
Rubio said he was skeptical that the gambit would work, but that he briefly told Trump the next day that “there might be something happening in Venezuela,” and that he would keep him posted.
Under questioning by prosecutor Harold Shimkat, Rubio said he was not aware that Rivera’s company had been paid by U.S. oil refiner Citgo Petroleum PDVSAC.UL, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company. Had he known, Rubio said, “I would have not taken any subsequent action in this matter.”
