WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain's campaign on Tuesday distanced its foreign policy adviser from a longtime Republican fundraiser who paid the adviser $130,000 when he was a lobbyist. The payments by Texas businessman Stephen Payne to McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann, ending in 2006, were largely for lobbying Congress and executive branch agencies on energy issues, according to records filed with the Senate. McCain's presidential campaign says that Scheunemann did not lobby McCain on any issue relating to Payne, who is caught up in a controversy over whether he sought to sell White House access to a prospective business client. Payne faces a deadline of Wednesday to answer a House committee chairman's questions about whether Payne solicited donations for President Bush's library. The McCain campaign says that Payne and Scheunemann met in Latvia in 2001 when Scheunemann was working on behalf of the Baltic nation's NATO candidacy. Scheunemann has had no business relationship with Payne since July 2006 and has no knowledge of Payne's business activities since that time, the McCain campaign said. 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. On Tuesday, the McCain campaign said Scheunemann generally tracked progress of the legislation, but did not advocate positions for or against it. Scheunemann provided general advice to IBEDC on attitudes in Washington on international energy issues, but did not advocate positions for or against specific pieces of legislation, the campaign said. Another of Payne's companies, Worldwide Strategic Partners Inc., paid $10,000 to Scheunemann's firm in 2002. The third Payne firm, Caspian Alliance Inc., paid Scheunemann $40,000 in 2005 and 2006 on issues concerning energy development in the Caspian region. Scheunemann arranged several informational meetings for Payne with Department of State and National Security Council officials regarding Caspian energy issues, the McCain campaign said. Scheunemann did not lobby on specific legislation regarding Worldwide Strategic Partners or Caspian Alliance, the campaign added.
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