Court tosses $456K judgment against former Florida Congressman in 2012 campaign scheme

A federal appeals court has thrown out a $456,000 judgment against former Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera, opining that a Miami judge erred when she ruled that Rivera funneled illegal political contributions to a candidate running a 2012 primary campaign against the congressman’s Democratic nemesis.

The decision on Monday by the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is the latest lifeline for a politician fighting government lawyers on multiple fronts, but it doesn’t end the case. Rather, it gives Rivera another chance to fight the Federal Election Commission in court, and before a different judge than the one who ruled against him in 2022.

“After wasting millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, this twelve year witch-hunt that began during Obama’s first term will soon come to a humiliating end for the corrupt FEC when they suffer an embarrassing defeat at trial,” Rivera wrote in a message to the Miami Herald. “I can’t wait.”

An attorney representing Rivera said they are waiting to hear from the FEC on whether the agency intends to continue pursuing the case. The Federal Election Commission declined to comment.

The case was first filed by the FEC in 2017 alleging that Rivera had secretly bankrolled $75,927 in political services for the primary campaign of a Democratic candidate running against Joe Garcia, who would ultimately go on to defeat Rivera that November in what was then considered Florida’s 26th Congressional District.

The scheme, first reported by the Miami Herald, was the subject of a years-long federal investigation.

The candidate receiving the financial support, Justin Lamar Sternad, eventually pleaded guilty to criminal charges and served 30 days in prison, with three months’ house arrest.

A political consultant working with Rivera, Ana Alliegro, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison, six months of house arrest, and two years of supervised release.

Rivera wasn’t charged criminally. Instead, he faced a civil complaint from the FEC, which said he’d violated federal laws banning straw political donations.

Two years ago, District Court Judge Marcia Cooke sided with the FEC, saying that “Rivera’s illegal conduct was egregious” and issuing an injunction blocking Rivera — who has continued to flirt with political campaigns — from illegal campaign activity in the future.

“Perhaps by virtue of the Court barring Rivera from engaging in similar unlawful conduct in the future, ‘that will do the trick’ in convincing Rivera — a former U.S. Congressman — to stop violating the law,” Cooke wrote.

Rivera, though, has always denied masterminding an illegal campaign plot to undermine Garcia.

And on Monday, Circuit judges Barbara Lagoa, Robert Luck and Charles Wilson reversed Cooke, saying she erred by granting summary judgment in favor of the FEC.

The appeals panel found that Cooke relied heavily on testimony from witnesses, Sternad and vendors who provided services to the Sternad campaign, and “improperly discounted” Rivera’s deposition and signed affidavits denying any contributions to the Democrat candidate. Summary judgment, they noted, is reserved for cases in which material facts are not in dispute.

Rivera’s attorney, Jeffrey Feldman, told the Herald in an email that the 11th Circuit vacated the judgment against Rep. Rivera “because the Federal Election Commission did not have sufficient evidence to prove its allegations. ”

“The FEC’s case against Congressman Rivera remains meritless and the judgment against him was properly discarded,” Feldman wrote.

The 11th Circuit sent the case back to the District Court, where a different judge will now preside over the case should it continue, following Cooke’s death last year. Federal court records show that Judge Aileen Cannon is now listed as the jurist overseeing the case.

READ: Judge: Ex-Miami Rep. Rivera must finally pay penalty for election violations. It’s six figures

Rivera’s fight with the FEC is just one front in a number of legal dramas. In 2020, he was sued for $50 million by PDVSA, an oil company owned by Venezuela’s socialist government, for a breach of contract. Rivera was a critic of socialist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela while holding office.

According to the lawsuit filed in New York federal court, Rivera — an old political ally of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — was paid $15 million as a down payment on a three-month, $50 million contract through his consulting company, Interamerican Consulting Inc. The contract aimed to help improve the company’s image in the U.S. as the energy firm’s finances and reputation collapsed along with Venezuela’s economy.

Rivera was then arrested in 2022 on federal charges of failing to register as a foreign agent before working for the Venezuelan government. A year later, Rivera was charged with failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income.

Rivera has said he is innocent.

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of Rivera’s attorney