Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified that he had no knowledge his longtime friend, former Florida congressman David Rivera, was allegedly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela's government, telling a federal court he "would've been shocked" to learn of such ties.
Rubio's testimony came during Rivera's trial in Miami, where prosecutors accuse him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Nicolás Maduro's regime as part of a $50 million lobbying scheme launched in 2017. Rivera and co-defendant Esther Nuhfer have pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
