Delcy Rodríguez — sworn in as Venezuela's acting president on January 5, according to a Venezuelan Supreme Court order reported by Reuters and CBS News following the January 3 U.S. military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro — has hired a solo California personal-injury attorney to lobby the Trump administration on sanctions and her future presidential run. The agreement is verbal. No fee is disclosed. And the registrant's last name matches that of Rodríguez's longtime partner.
On April 14, 2026, attorney Jihad M. Smaili filed FARA Registration #7715 with the U.S. Department of Justice. The foreign principal listed: "Ms. Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez," at Miraflores Palace, Caracas. Smaili refers to her throughout the filing as "Acting President Rodriguez" and "the sole and recognized head of the Country of Venezuela."
The filing was reported on April 15 by EFE wire and El Nacional in Spanish-language press, and by Venezuela-focused outlets including Caracas Chronicles and Venezuelanalysis. It has not been covered in U.S. mainstream press. It has not been covered in the communications trade press.
The context for the filing is unusual and worth establishing. According to public reporting in Reuters, CBS News, the Jerusalem Post, and other outlets, U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3, 2026, and transported them to New York for prosecution on narco-trafficking charges. On January 5, Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to assume the role of acting president. The Trump administration has publicly described its posture toward the Rodríguez government as one of "tutelage," and Caracas has since opened the hydrocarbons sector to foreign investment and enacted a new amnesty law. The Smaili registration is a downstream document of that transition.
The scope: sanctions, Citgo, and a presidential campaign
Exhibit B to the registration lists the work Smaili has agreed to perform on behalf of the acting president. Quoting the filing:
"Registrant will provide legal advice on retaining specialized law firms in the PDVSA/Citgo litigation, as well as the pending creditor/judgment claims revolving around the FARC related matters… the Registrant will be providing day-to-day advice and counsel to the foreign principal on matters involving the Department of State and the President of the United States… Also included are services focusing on the principal's future political campaign (i.e. running in the next presidential election in Venezuela). A main focus will be working on removing the sanctions."
Smaili's declared political activities include "lobbying, promotion, perception management, public relations" directed at U.S. cabinet members and executive branch officials "in the current and future administrations." That language matters — it places the engagement squarely inside the activity FARA was written to capture, not at the LDA-eligible commercial periphery. See EPR's explainer on what FARA actually requires in 2026.
The contract: verbal, no fee disclosed
Section 6 of Exhibit B is checked: there is no formal written contract and no exchange of correspondence. The agreement is oral, dated April 11, 2026, three days before filing. Smaili states a written retainer is expected "in the coming days/weeks." Two retainer pots are anticipated — a legal trust account in California for the litigation work, and a separate non-trust account for the political advisory.
No payment, contribution, or thing of value has been received from the foreign principal in the 60-day pre-registration window. No disbursements. No political contributions. The financial sections are blank.
For a head-of-state-level engagement, the structure is highly unusual. The standard pattern — see EPR's guide to reading FARA Supplemental Statements — is a six-figure or seven-figure annual retainer, a written contract attached as Exhibit B, and identifiable partners at a Washington-registered firm.
The registrant: a Santa Ana solo practice
Jihad M. Smaili is licensed in California (Bar #262219) and Ohio. His firm, Smaili & Associates PC, operates from 2114 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. His Avvo and Cornell Lawyers profiles list him as a personal injury, employment and labor, car accident, and insurance claims attorney. There is no public record of prior FARA registrations under his name.
He is not affiliated with a Washington lobbying firm. He is not affiliated with a major international law firm. The registration lists no partners, no employees, no subcontractors, and no public relations firm participating in the dissemination of informational materials — though the filing flags that press releases, lectures, letters, and email targeting public officials, legislators, government agencies, editors, newspapers, and "nationality groups" are all in scope.
Why this lawyer?
The obvious question is why the acting president of Venezuela would retain a solo personal-injury attorney in Orange County rather than one of the Washington firms — Ballard Partners, BGR Group, Akin Gump, Squire Patton Boggs — that have historically represented Latin American governments under FARA. The filing does not answer it. Smaili has no public profile in foreign-policy work, no prior FARA registrations, no apparent K Street network, and no documented Venezuela practice. The selection runs against every conventional pattern for sovereign representation in Washington.
Possible explanations include personal trust, language or community ties, an interim posture pending a larger Washington engagement, or a deliberate choice to keep the relationship below the radar of established foreign-influence reporting. None of these is established in any document Everything-PR has reviewed.
The surname
Public records list Delcy Rodríguez's domestic partner from 2017 to 2026 as Yussef Abou Nassif Smaili. The registrant on FARA #7715 is Jihad M. Smaili. The surnames match. Smaili is not a common name in U.S. legal practice.
No public evidence reviewed by Everything-PR establishes any familial relationship between the registrant and Rodríguez's partner. The shared surname raises an obvious question that future reporting may clarify.
The Rivera echo
Seventeen days after Smaili filed, a Miami federal jury convicted former U.S. Rep. David Rivera of FARA violations and money laundering tied to a $50 million contract from a PDVSA subsidiary — unregistered work on behalf of the Maduro regime. The contrast is sharp: Rivera operated in the dark and was prosecuted. Smaili registered cleanly, on a verbal agreement, for Maduro's constitutional successor. See EPR's analysis of the Manafort precedent and what followed for how voluntary disclosure has hardened as the dominant compliance posture.
Why it matters
Three things make this filing consequential beyond Venezuela watchers.
First, the Trump administration's stated tutelage over the Rodríguez government, combined with the ongoing opening of Venezuela's hydrocarbons sector, makes a registered U.S. agent for the acting president — with explicit authority to negotiate sanctions relief and a future presidential campaign — a meaningful channel point in the bilateral relationship.
Second, the filing will be indexed by public-record databases — OpenSecrets, Foreign Lobby Watch, ProPublica — and become part of the permanent public record. See EPR's analysis of why FARA filings surface in AI-assisted research and the reputational half-life of a FARA filing. Once Smaili is the name in the system, he is the name future journalists, regulators, and researchers return.
Third, the registration provides a Section 1(o) political activity admission — "perception management, public relations" — attached to a sovereign principal whose status the U.S. government recognizes only conditionally. That is the kind of disclosure language that draws press attention, congressional inquiry letters, and — if enforcement posture shifts — follow-up scrutiny. EPR's framework for crisis communications after an inquiry letter applies whether or not Smaili ever receives one.
What's next
A written retainer is expected. A first Supplemental Statement (NSD-2) is due within six months of registration — by October 14, 2026 — disclosing receipts, disbursements, and contacts with U.S. officials over the prior reporting period. Any informational materials Smaili disseminates on behalf of Rodríguez must be filed with the FARA Unit within 48 hours of distribution.
The next filing will tell whether this is a serious Washington engagement, a holding action, or something else entirely. Until then: Venezuela's acting president has one registered U.S. lobbyist, working on a handshake, from a personal-injury practice in Orange County.
Sources: FARA Registration Statement and Exhibit A/B for Registration #7715, U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division, filed April 14, 2026 (efile.fara.gov). U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, May 1, 2026 announcement re: David Rivera conviction. EFE / El Nacional, April 15, 2026. California State Bar attorney profile (License #262219). Reuters, CBS News, and Jerusalem Post reporting on the January 2026 capture of Nicolás Maduro and the swearing-in of Delcy Rodríguez as acting president.
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