The saga of former top “Villagers for Trump” official Robert Rivernider Jr is a genuine slice of MAGAmericana and can really only be told in a straight line: In 2013 Rivernider was convicted of a $20 million Ponzi scheme in a Connecticut federal court and sentenced to 12 years in prison but was released due to the COVID pandemic in 2020, promptly moving down to live with his father, Robert Rivernider Sr, in The Villages, Florida. Shortly thereafter, Rivernider Sr caught the ‘Rona and died on October 19, 2020. Then on October 29, the county clerk’s office received Rivernider Sr’s mail-in ballot, signed and dated the 16th, but postmarked on the 23rd. No mystery who the vote was for.
At some point Rivernider got himself a spot on the board of Villagers for Trump and, hilariously, became a coordinator for racist psychopath Laura Loomer’s doomed 2022 primary campaign against the vast corporate retirement community’s Republican Congressman Dan Webster. It wasn’t until 2023 when the Sumter County Clerk’s Office gave his old man’s ballot to the sheriff’s office for investigation, leading to his arrest that September. Rivernider was represented by none other than Anthony Sabatini – then also running a doomed primary against Webster. Sabatini put up no defense and Rivernider was convicted. Being white and MAGA however, he only got 180 days in jail.
It’s not clear how long ago Rivernider completed that 180 day bid, but either way he had been out as of June, when federal law enforcement arrested him on what Villages-News.com reports was a violation of the conditions of his supervised release – for which he was sentenced to three years in the federal joint last week. The article isn’t clear on whether the state-level voter fraud charge was that actual violation or if it was something else. Still one less MAGA on the streets no matter what.