Sunday Times Video Catches Lobbyist Selling White House Access

By Ken Silverstein

The Sunday Times carried out an undercover sting, in which lobbyist and former Bush Administration official Stephen Payne thought he was meeting “Eric Dos,” a man seeking to arrange meetings in Washington for Askar Akayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan.

“Who does he want to meet with in Washington?” asked [Payne]. Dos replied: “Well of course, maybe the president of the United States, vice-president Cheney, to speak maybe directly to explain the situation in central Asia . . . To give his side of the story. These kind of things.”

“I think that some things could be done,” said Payne, adding that seeing Bush himself might be more difficult. With barely a pause, he continued: “I think that the family, children, whatever [of Akayev], should probably look at making a contribution to the Bush library. It would be like, maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or something like that, not a huge amount but enough to show that they’re serious.”

Read the full story and make sure to watch the wonderful video of Payne selling access, too.