McCain Adviser Found To Have Lobbied For Third Group Tied To Stephen PayneMore evidence of ties between John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser and Stephen Payne, the guy caught on video offering to arrange meetings with top White House officials in exchange for big donations to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library Fund.
We knew that Randy Scheunemann had worked for two of Payne’s firms in recent years. Now the AP reports on a third:
International Business & Energy Development Corp., is the third of Payne’s firms to emerge as paying money to Scheunemann. The payments from mid-2001 to mid-2003 totaled $80,000, for issues ranging from monitoring legislation concerning global energy developments to lobbying on a bill authorizing Bush to provide assistance to Pakistan and India, according to the Senate filings. The post-Sept. 11 legislation lifted the last remaining economic sanctions against Pakistan.
That brings the total paid by Payne’s firms to McCain’s adviser to about $130,000 since 2001.
The McCain campaign said Scheunemann has had no business relationship with Payne since July 2006 and has no knowledge of Payne’s business activities since that time.