Ex-Congressman Headed To The Slammer For Working With Commies
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Ten years in federal prison sounds about right for a man who spent years doing favors for a regime that has crushed its own people and curses the United States with every broadcast. Former Rep. David Rivera didn't just cross the aisle.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Former Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison for secretly lobbying on behalf of the Venezuelan government and laundering millions of dollars tied to the work. U.S.
District Judge Melissa Damian handed down the sentence after a federal jury convicted Rivera, 61, in May of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts involving transactions with criminally derived property.
Jason A. Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said the sentence demonstrates that “foreign influence in America cannot operate in the shadows.” “For a former Congressman from South Florida, this betrayal cuts especially deep,” Quiñones said. “Rivera represented a community shaped by generations of families who fled communist oppression and came to this country seeking freedom.
He knew that history. He knew what this community had endured. Yet the jury found that, for millions of dollars, he secretly used the access and relationships entrusted to him to advance the interests of the Maduro regime.” Rivera was elected to the House in November 2010 and served one term before losing reelection.
He was indicted in 2022. According to the Department of Justice , the case centered on a $50 million contract that Rivera and co-defendant Esther Nuhfer obtained with a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
The DOJ said the pair worked to “advance the interests” of the government of then-President Nicolás Maduro without registering as foreign agents. Trial evidence showed that Rivera and Nuhfer lobbied U.S. officials, including then-Sen.
Marco Rubio and Rep. Pete Sessions, and arranged meetings between U.S. policymakers and senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro and then-Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez. They also used coded language in text messages to conceal their conduct.
Rivera directed $1.5 million from the contract to his campaign account between March 2017 and August 2018, according to the DOJ. “Today’s sentencing represents a meaningful step toward restoring public trust in the integrity of our democratic processes,” said Special Agent in Charge Brett D.
Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office. “It also demonstrates the impact of federal partners working together and combining their investigative expertise. And no attempt to conceal unlawful conduct will remain beyond the FBI’s reach.” Create a free account to join the conversation!
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Ten years in federal prison sounds about right for a man who spent years doing favors for a regime that has crushed its own people and curses the United States with every broadcast. Former Rep. David Rivera didn't just cross the aisle. He sold his loyalty to a socialist regime and helped launder millions in the process. A jury found him guilty in May, and U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian made it stick on Friday. Good.
Rivera was a Florida Republican, which makes this extra ugly. He was elected to Congress to represent American interests, not to be a quiet errand boy for Nicolás Maduro's criminal operation. The details of the case read like a spy novel: secret lobbying, hidden payments, and a whole lot of pretending. But there was nothing clever about it. He got caught, and now he goes to the slammer. No one gets a pass for that — whatever party label they wear.
There is a temptation in some circles to wave this off as one bad apple. That's too nice. Rivera used his position as a former lawmaker to undermine U.S. foreign policy and enrich himself in the process. That's not a policy difference. That's a traitor to the country, not just the party. Conservative or liberal, if you take money from a communist dictatorship to work against America, you're an enemy of the people, and prison is exactly where you belong.
We are not going to defend this guy because he had an R next to his name. Accountability is the whole point of law and order, and Republicans should be first in line to demand it when one of our own goes wrong. Rivera's sentence is a good reminder that no title, no pedigree, and no party gets you out of the consequences of betraying your own nation. Here's hoping the rest of his days behind bars gives him plenty of time to think about that.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.