Miami's political escape artist can't shake the feds' election conspiracy lawsuit
Source: Miami Herald
BY DAVID SMILEY AND JAY WEAVER
APRIL 16, 2019 02:44 PM
David Rivera, the escape artist of Miami politicians, will need to pull off an encore performance if he’s going to emerge completely unscathed from the campaign conspiracies that have embroiled him in controversy for a decade.
Only six months after claiming vindication, the former congressman learned in federal court Tuesday that he will indeed have to fight allegations that he secretly financed a ringer candidate to run in a primary against his Democratic nemesis, after Judge Marcia Cooke rejected Rivera’s second attempt to have her toss a Federal Election Commission complaint against him.
Rivera’s attorney had convinced the judge back in September to dismiss the lawsuit — the final unresolved case stemming from a career of campaign-finance shenanigans. But Cooke agreed to reopen the lawsuit in January, and this time Cooke sided with the FEC.
Cooke’s ruling means the lawsuit will go on, and Rivera, who was never charged by federal prosecutors in the scheme, will indeed have to defend himself in court from a federal agency seeking $389,000 in penalties.
Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article229268124.html
