MIAMI — When Brian Ballard, a prominent Florida lobbyist who raised millions for Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, signed a contract with a wealthy Venezuelan to help expand his TV station into the United States, he disclosed the $50,000 monthly retainer on a lobbying form with the U.S. government in 2017.

But when former Florida Congressman David Rivera obtained a $50 million consulting contract with the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company that same year, the GOP conservative kept secret his deal with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro, according federal prosecutors.

“To me, it’s like a stop sign,” Ballard, a lawyer-cum-lobbyist, testified about the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a U.S. transparency law that prosecutors say Rivera and a colleague flouted when Rivera’s consulting firm secured the highly profitable contract with PDV USA, the wholly owned government subsidiary of PDVSA in Venezuela.

“If you see a stop sign, you stop,” Ballard said before a 12-person federal jury.

Over the past two days, Ballard testified as a government witness at the Miami federal trial of Rivera and his associate, Miami political consultant Esther Nuhfer. They’re charged with conspiring against the U.S. government and failing to register as foreign agents for Venezuela with the U.S. Attorney General as the pair sought to “normalize” relations with the Maduro government amid looming U.S. economic sanctions.

Ballard described the Byzantine world of lobbying in Washington, his relationships with Rivera and Nuhfer, and the defendants’ behind-the-scenes political efforts to remove Maduro and replace him with an opposition leader in Venezuela.

Ballard testified about discreet meetings in Miami and in the Dominican Republic with Rivera, Nuhfer and Venezuelan TV station tycoon Raul Gorrín, who became a client of his lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, in June 2017. Ballard said he also met with Venezuelan political opposition leaders here and in the DR earlier that year as he considered whether to represent them as well as Gorrin’s TV network, Caracas-based Globovision, as a client in his bid to break into the TV marketplace in the United States.

Ballard’s company, Ballard Partners, did not retain the Venezuelan opposition parties as a client, but his firm did reach an agreement with Globovision and registered the contract with the U.S. government under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. That law exempted his firm from having to file a separate Foreign Agents Registration Act form because Globovisio was a private foreign corporation, not a foreign government or political entity like PDV USA, according to prosecutors.

That distinction has landed Rivera, 60, and Nuhfer, 51, in federal court facing criminal charges.

Ballard testified he was shocked when he learned in mid-May 2020 that Rivera’s firm, Interamerican Consulting, was sued by PDV USA in a breach-of-contract case. Ballard said he was not aware of Rivera’s business dealings with PDV USA, which operates as Houston-based CITGO in the United States. Ballard said he considered the U.S. subsidiary part of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.

Ballard also testified he was puzzled by Rivera’s statement in a Washington Post story about PDV USA’s suit against his company, which was accused of receiving $20 million over several months in 2017 for doing little work for ostensibly promoting CITGO’s oil interests in the United States.

Ballard said he reached out to Rivera, who sent him a text message with his full statement to the Post. The statement said his PDV USA contract was an “operation managed by the Citgo 6 dissidents inside Citgo,” a reference to six American executives who worked for the Houston subsidiary and were imprisoned in Venezuela for five years on embezzlement charges after they traveled to Caracas in November 2017.

In the statement, Rivera said the operation included “ALL of the funds, every penny, in consultation with Venezuelan opposition [leaders], including Lilian and Leopoldo Lopez, [a jailed political prisoner] in an effort to undermine PDVSA and Maduro’s control.”

“There was NEVER any involvement by PDVSA and solely involved Maduro opponents inside Citgo and within the opposition,” his statement said. “Some of whom paid dearly for their participation in this noble effort and are today sitting in Maduro’s gulag as a result.”

Rivera’s statement went on to say that the National Security Council in the White House and U.S. Department of State “were fully aware” of the operation.

Ballard testified that he had no idea what Rivera was saying in the statement about his PDV USA contract to the Post.

He also testified that he became upset when Rivera sent a follow-up text on May 16, 2017: “Btw, this plot was hatched by Julio Borges during our trip to DR [the Dominican Republic] in February 2017,” Rivera wrote Ballard, referring to another Venezuelan opposition leader who attended a meeting there with Ballard, Rivera and others.

“So you’re part of it too!!!” Rivera told Ballard in the text message, which included three emojis with crying eyes.

Blocked his call

In a blunt response, Ballard wrote: “I have nothing to do with this David. Do not attempt to include me in any way. I don’t find it humorous at all.”

Rivera replied: “Don’t worry. Just don’t believe everything you read. It’s total b.s.”

“Good to hear,” Ballard responded.

Ballard testified that after the exchange of text messages, he blocked Rivera on his phone.

Ballard testified that after reading Rivera’s final text message, he felt as “if we were involved in some conspiracy that we shouldn’t have done.”

After his testimony on Tuesday, Rivera’s defense attorney Edward Shohat moved for a mistrial, arguing that Ballard’s testimony about the text exchange with his client misstated the evidence because Rivera and Nuhfer were working to help the Venezuelan opposition leaders and oust Maduro. But U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian rejected Shohat’s motion.

Ballard’s firm tops in DC

Ballard, who was raised in Florida and received his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Florida, founded Ballard Partners in Tallahassee in 1998. After Ballard served as chairman of Trump’s finance committee in Florida during his successful presidential campaign in 2016, he opened a lobbying office in Washington.

Last year, after Trump won a second term in the White House, Ballard Partners earned revenue of $88 million and was considered the top lobbying firm in the nation’s capital, thanks to its Republican connections.

During his testimony in Miami federal court, Ballard spoke about his dealings with Rivera and how they had met when he served as a state representative in the 2000s. The lobbyist also spoke about his relationship with Nuhfer, who had developed a name for herself as a fundraiser for GOP candidates.

Ballard testified that in 2017, Nuhfer helped his lobbying firm secure the government of the Dominican Republic as a client, a contract agreement that was registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He said that Nuhfer was paid a $10,000 monthly referral fee from the contract but not working as a Ballard lobbyist on the account.

Ballard also testified that Nuhfer helped his firm obtain a lobbying deal with Gorrin’s Globovision, which sought to expand its Caracas TV station into the U.S. market. Ballard testified that he was reluctant to sign up the TV station as a client because of Gorrin’s perceived closeness to Maduro and his inner circle in Venezuela, but he decided to accept him as a client in June 2017 after former Venezuelan ambassador and Ballard Partners’ consultant Otto Reich did due diligence on the Caracas tycoon.

Lilian Tintori, the wife of jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, also told him that Gorrin was “not a Maduro puppet.”

Susie Wiles worked with Venezuelan tycoon

The one-year contract lasted from June 2017 to June 2018, requiring Globovision to pay his firm $50,000 a month. Ballard said his firm paid Nuhfer a referral fee. Ballard also noted that the Globovision contract was registered with the U.S. government under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Among his partners who worked on the account was Susie Wiles, Trump’s former campaign manager in Florida who now serves as the chief of staff in the White House.

Ballard said he ended the contract with Globovision because of his frustration with the lack of progress on the account and his misgivings about Gorrin. At that time, the Miami Herald had reported that Gorrin was under investigation by federal authorities in South Florida regarding allegations of foreign corruption and money laundering. He would be indicted in late 2018 and 2024 in separate cases.

During her early communications with Ballard about representing Globovision, Nuhfer texted Ballard in February 2017 about representing Globovision, headed by Gorrin.

Nuhfer told Ballard that Gorrin recommended that his lobbying firm represent Lopez’s wife, Tintori, and other Venezuelan opposition leaders, and that Gorrin would be meeting him soon, Ballard testified.

Ballard curtly responded in a text to her: “I’m not part of that at all. Not want to be.” Then he added: “Ester please make sure the people you are dealing with understand the serious nature the FARA laws,” referring to the Foreign Registration Act.

“We will not be part of anything that runs afoul of them,” Ballard told Nuhfer in the text exchange. “I’m sure you won’t either but I urge you to be extremely careful.”

Nuhfer’s response: “Absolutely, No u misunderstood, he’s not paying anyone to represent her. I was referring to his [Gorrin’s] support on her family.”

Ballard pointed out that Tintori, Lopez’s wife, was going to meet President Trump. She responded: “Great job!”

On Feb. 15, 2017, Trump posted on his social media platform: “Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner & husband of @liliantintori (just met w/ @marcorubio) out of prison immediately.”

Ballard testified that he was willing to represent the Venezuelan opposition leaders for free, but decided against it because of the risk to Lopez, who was still jailed as a political prisoner by Maduro.

On cross-examination, Nuhfer’s lawyer, David O. Markus, noted that in their text exchange, his client knew about the foreign-agent disclosure law and would not run afoul of it. He asked Ballard if that assessment was correct.

Ballard said, “yes.”

Markus also asked Ballard if he was aware that during this same period, Nuhfer’s company, Communications Solutions, also represented Gorrin’s Globovision in a $3.75 million consulting contract. She worked on the account with Rivera and another associate. Ballard said he was not.

Markus then asked Ballard if he knew that Nuhfer returned that money to Gorrin, without providing an explanation. Ballard said he didn’t know about it.

Fisher Island neighbors

The root of the problems for Rivera and Nuhfer began in early 2017 when she introduced Rivera to Hugo Perera, a convicted drug trafficker-turned-real estate developer who then put them together with Gorrin. He was Perera’s neighbor on exclusive Fisher Island. In turn, Gorrin helped Rivera land his $50-million contract with Venezuela’s oil subsidiary, PDV USA, known as CITGO.

Court records show that PDV USA paid Rivera $20 million over a few months in 2017 for “international strategic consulting services,” but then cut him off, saying in a 2020 lawsuit that he did not perform much work to help the company expand its refining business in the United States.

For making the introductions to Gorrin, Rivera paid Perera about $5 million, but has since had a falling out with him. Perera was not charged in the government’s case against Rivera and Nuhfer. Instead, he is cooperating as a witness against them; his testimony is expected this month.

Separately, as part of his PDV USA contract, Rivera also paid about $4 million each to Nuhfer and Gorrin.

According to their indictment, Rivera and Nuhfer arranged meetings in July 2017 with an unidentified U.S. senator in Washington — Sen. Marco Rubio, the Miami Republican —on two occasions at a private residence and a hotel in the nation’s capital to discuss a plan to address the political crisis in Venezuela, a country that had economically collapsed under Maduro and was facing U.S. sanctions.

Rivera told Rubio at the residence that Gorrin had persuaded Maduro to accept a deal whereby he would hold free and fair elections, the indictment says. Then, Rivera, Nuhfer and Gorrin met with Rubio at the hotel, with a Venezuelan opposition leader participating by phone, to discuss Venezuela’s issues.

Last week, Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state, testified about these meetings in Washington — but noted that he was unaware of Rivera’s $50 million contract with PDV USA at the time. Rubio said he would have been “shocked” because he always knew Rivera as a staunch anti-communist and anti-socialist who strongly opposed Maduro.

Gorrin ultimately informed Rivera and Nuhfer that Maduro “refused to agree to hold free and fair elections in Venezuela in exchange for reconciliation with the United States,” according to the indictment.

In early January, U.S. military forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a compound in Caracas and brought them to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in New York.

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