On Sunday, the US State Department blasted Giammattei’s government for seeking to lift the immunity from prosecution of a judge who has won high honours in Washington for exposing bribery in Guatemala.

“This action against an internationally recognised independent judge weakens a vital pillar of Guatemala’s democracy and judicial system,” spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

In its registration, Ballard only said it would provide “strategic consulting and advocacy services” related to Guatemala’s interactions with the US government and US officials.

Justin Sayfie, a partner in Ballard’s Washington office, declined to comment further. But he said that the request for Taiwan to assume responsibility for payment was not the firm’s idea.

“It’s unusual for one government to be paying the fees for lobbying for another government,” said Robert Kelner, an attorney specialising in compliance with foreign lobbying laws for Covington & Burling. “It’s not illegal. But it does raise a question of whether the government that pays also needs to be listed by the lobbying firm as a foreign principal.”

Guatemala in a statement thanked Taiwan for “the support that allows us to strengthen our positioning in the US”. It said the one-year contract with Ballard, for which it is paying US$75,000 a month, will focus on strategic communication, investor outreach and promoting tourism.

Guatemala is one of only 13 mostly small, developing countries that still has full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which split from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.

Taiwan in the past has donated fleets of buses, agricultural equipment and other high-profile gifts to its allies. But it has been unable to compete with China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway territory and has aggressively worked to isolate it on the world stage.

Recently, Beijing secured diplomatic recognition from Guatemala’s neighbours Nicaragua and El Salvador. Honduras’ new president, Xiomara Castro, as a candidate also threatened to open ties to Beijing but has since backtracked on the idea.

Giammattei, a law and order conservative, managed to bypass criticism in Washington and forge a productive relationship with the Trump administration by yielding to the White House’s pressure to embrace an asylum agreement negotiated by his predecessor that he opposed when he ran for the presidency in 2019.

But he has struggled to build close ties to the Biden administration, which has sought to undo Trump’s immigration policies and taken a harsher look at corruption and rule of law issues in the so-called Northern Triangle nations of Central America.

Biden did not invite Giammattei to his democracy summit last year and in June Vice-President Kamala Harris, in a visit to Guatemala, described having a very frank conversation with the Guatemalan leader about the importance of maintaining an independent judiciary.

The shift towards a less independent justice system began before Giammattei took office but has continued on his watch.

Ballard will manage the account along with two associates with extensive ties to the Republican Party: Jose Diaz, a former Florida state representative who is a managing partner of Ballard’s office in Miami; and Sayfie, a one-time adviser to former Florida governor Jeb Bush who also headed the president’s commission on White House Fellowships during the Trump administration. A third associate representing Guatemala, John O’Hanlon, is a long-time Democrat.

Ballard amassed dozens of foreign and domestic lobbying clients during the Trump presidency – including Qatar, the Dominican Republic and Zimbabwe – when he was described by Politico as “the most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington”.

More recently, it has added a number of influential Democratic fundraisers and named former Congressman Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, as managing partner of its Washington office to bolster its credentials with the Biden White House.