12/7 UPDATE: Jury convicts Trump superfan

The Trump superfan busted for allegedly forging his dead father’s name on a 2020 election mail-in ballot is a convicted felon who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for financial fraud and ordered to pay $22 million in restitution, an amount he recently challenged via a bizarre pro se motion in which he requests to “identify” as “HUNTER BIDEN” in all future court proceedings, records show.

Robert Rivernider, 58, was charged last week with fraud and forgery for allegedly signing his father’s name to the ballot, which was postmarked days after the older man’s October 2020 death (which was due to COVID-19, according to a federal court filing).  

As detailed in a criminal complaint filed in Sumter County, Florida, based on a comparison of signatures for Rivernider and his father, “there appear to be similarities between the signatures in the 2020 election” that match Rivernider’s signature, “but not prior versions of [his father’s signature].”

Pictured at right, Rivernider moved into his father’s Wildwood home after his May 2020 release from a federal lockup in Estill, South Carolina. In December 2013, Rivernider was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to an investment scheme that defrauded victims into "purchasing real estate investment properties based on material misrepresentations, concealed facts, and material omissions,” according to prosecutors.

Rivernider was convicted in the District of Connecticut, where the U.S. Attorney’s Office was, at the time of his plea, headed by John Durham (whose name might ring a bell).

A judge granted Rivernider’s early release after the felon filed a “compassionate release” motion citing his heart ailments and the rampant COVID-19 spread in the federal prison system. Additionally, Rivernider noted that his elderly father had been left alone following the death of Rivernider’s mother.

Finding that Rivernider’s recidivism risk was “low,” Judge Robert Chatigny freed the convict, who, upon release, began serving a five-year probation term (which ends in May 2025).

Rivernider does not credit Chatigny for his freedom, however. His release was “thanks to President Trump,” according to his account on X, formerly known as Twitter. On his Substack bio, Rivernider writes, “Freedom fighter TRUMP WON.”

Upon arriving in Florida, Rivernider has served on the board of Villagers for Trump, the leading Trump/MAGA group in The Villages, the sprawling retirement community. In a court filing, he reported working as a GOP field organizer in Florida and Georgia. According to another court document, Rivernider got a job in 2021 as a legislative representative for an unnamed organization “that helps people have a voice on Capitol Hill.”

What Rivernider has not done, prosecutors charged earlier this year in a probation violation report, is adhere to a court-ordered restitution schedule.

Rivernider has chafed at the repayment plan and sought to have his conspiracy and wire fraud convictions set aside. He blames representatives of the “United States Corporation” for his legal travails.

In a June 2023 motion--which he filed pro se--Rivernider declared that the “Department of INJustice” has made a mockery of the rule of law and the federal bench has “refused to recognize FRAUD ON THE COURT.” As such, since “anyone can identify as anything they like,” Rivernider asked the judge to “identify and treat the defendant in the above-captioned case as “HUNTER BIDEN” from this point forward.”

In addition to asking the court to “dismiss the entire case,” Rivernider sought an apology “to the defendants and their families, order the persecutors to do the same, and all resign.”

In a one-sentence order signed on August 1, Chatigny denied Rivernider’s motion, which the judge called “frivolous.”