I couldn't stop by the King building to catch the action myself. But a few SDFLA blog "special correspondents" were on the scene and reported the following:
AUSA Harry Schimkat's direct examination of Secretary Rubio was well-done--"concise, direct, efficient, and organized." It also produced some moments of levity. Take the following:
Question: "Sir, are you employed?" (Laughter)
Answer: “Yes, I actually have two jobs. Secretary of State of the United States of America and National Security Advisor for the President of the United States." (More laughter)
Later, Secretary Rubio testified that he served as a U.S. Senator for Florida until he was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State “99-0.” That prompted this line from Judge Damian: “Better than me.” (Laughter again)
On cross, defense attorneys scored some points too. In response to questioning from David Markus, Rubio agreed that Esther Nuhfer, Rivera's co-defendant, was "trustworthy," "acted in good faith," was "generous as a person," and was "strongly opposed to socialism in Venezuela." And, more specific to the charges, Rubio agreed that Nuhfer never lobbied him for anything. Jay Weaver for the Herald covers it here.
Still a lot more to come in this case. But yesterday made some history. According to Newsweek, Secretary Rubio is the first sitting member of the president's Cabinet to testify in a criminal trial in 43 years. The last one? Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan, who testified at a mafia trial in 1983.
9 comments:
Re: Raymond Donovan. You should do a post on how he was wrongly prosecuted by the DOJ. His famous quote after the trial: "Where do I go to get my name back."
Can't wait for Shohat to get up in closing, holding the autographed book, and say:
"You saw Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States of America, Cuban American, Miamian, National Security Advisor, fierce anti-communist, instrumental in bringing down the dictatorial Maduro regime....you saw him sign this book....the government wants you to believe that that Man - their witness - would inscribe his name in a book to my client while suspecting Rivera was ever an agent of Maduro's government? And he has the facts. This signature is the stamp of Marco Rubio, highest ranking Cuban American in government - ever - that Rivera is not guilty."
Sit down.
Isn’t the whole claim that he duped Rubio?
Apparently, Rubio does not think he was duped or that the dude was a foreign agent, otherwise never would have signed the book.
The Herald story says the book was Shohat’s and Shohat asked him to sign it. Signing the book he wrote for a defense attorney who asked him to doesn’t seem very probative of anything other than that Rubio wasn’t trying to be a jerk for no reason.
Let's see how that works out in closing.
Well done
These people were so anti-communist that they were trying to work the long game of changing the tiger's stripes. At first glance, getting a big payday from commies seems hypocritical. But you have now shown them how klepto-capitalism can grease wheels. It's changing the regime without regime change. Brilliant!
Add that to the long list of things Marco Rubio has gotten wrong.
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