Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó

A top official for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government has engaged well-known attorney Bob Amsterdam and his law firm to fight international sanctions just weeks after Foley & Lardner dropped the client amid intense political pressure from the state of Florida.

Amsterdam, founding partner of Amsterdam & Partners, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and London, confirmed by phone Tuesday that his firm has an "incredibly preliminary" retainer to represent Maduro's inspector general, Reinaldo Muñoz, and by extension, the Maduro government.

Foley & Larder backed away from representing the Venezuelan officials in January, a few days after registering as a foreign agent to handle the work in the U.S. That arrangement was to pay the firm $12.5 million.

Amsterdam did not disclose possible fees, saying that "everything is under discussion" with the client and emphasizing that those discussions are in an "early stage." Amsterdam, who is Canadian, said he would address Canadian sanctions against Venezuela. Partner Andrew Durkovic would tackle U.S. sanctions.

The firm was motivated to take Venezuela on as a client specifically to address sanctions, which Amsterdam sees as exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the South American country.

"I have been historically against sanctions, which I consider to have backfired with respect to the United States for decades," he said.

Maduro was elected president of Venezuela in 2013, following the death of his mentor, longtime Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez.

U.S. sanctions began with an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 against top Venezuelan officials. Measures have since expanded to include sanctions against Maduro himself and the state oil company.

The U.S. has called the Maduro administration an "authoritarian regime" that has "deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens through the use of violence, repression and criminalization of demonstrations."

The U.S. and nearly 60 other countries recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country's rightful leader, arguing that Maduro's 2018 reelection was illegitimate. Russia, China, Turkey and Cuba back Maduro.

Meanwhile, Venezuela faces an increasingly dire economic and humanitarian crisis. More than four million Venezuelans—roughly 16% of the population—have fled in the last four years alone amid hyperinflation that makes it difficult to purchase sometimes scarce food and medicine.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott penned a scathing letter to Amsterdam & Partners on Monday after learning that the firm has taken on Maduro as a client. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have relocated to Florida over the past two decades as conditions in their country slowly deteriorated.

Scott, who was Florida's governor before he became a senator in 2019, called for a boycott of Amsterdam & Partners.

"As long as you represent a dangerous dictator who is murdering his own people, I will refuse to meet with anyone in your firm," Scott wrote in the letter to Amsterdam, which he posted to Twitter. "And I am urging every one of my colleagues to join me."

Amsterdam shot back via Twitter that Scott's threats "have more to do with mob rule than rule of law."

"We're certainly not going to let the senator and his boycott stop us," Amsterdam said by phone, arguing that everyone has the right to counsel and suggesting that Scott was "groveling for votes."

Amsterdam has represented governments and individuals in high-profile cases. Past clients include Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil company in Russia, who had been imprisoned but was eventually released. He also has represented numerous mining and extractive industry companies facing expropriation, intervention, and harassment by governments, and corporations such as the Four Seasons Resort and Hotels Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He defended members of the pro-democracy movement in Thailand at the behest of the former Thai prime minister, resulting in an appeal to the International Criminal Court concerning crimes against humanity committed by the Thai Army. And he served as counsel to prominent political leaders and activists such as Dr. Chee Soon Juan in Singapore and the former president of Zambia, Rupiah Banda. He also was hired to assist Turkey as it sought the extradition of a U.S.-based cleric and political enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A decade ago, Amsterdam represented a banker accused of helping businessmen defraud the Venezuelan government of millions of dollars. Once free on bail, that banker fled to the U.S. In retaliation, then-president Chávez jailed the judge who signed the banker's release.

READ MORE:

Foley & Lardner Drops Venezuela Lobby Contract Amid Backlash