[4] In July 2008 he attracted international attention after being secretly videotaped discussing a $750,000 lobbying contract offering access to senior U.S. officials and suggesting a $250,000 donation to the future presidential library of U.S. president George W.

[10] Payne coordinated a trilateral summit between the Presidents of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan that produced a memorandum of understanding regarding the Turkmen/Afghan natural gas pipeline, restoring the project's viability after years of dormancy at the hands of the Taliban.

[8] In 2010, leading a public relations team, Payne assisted Alexi Ogando, now a starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers (baseball), in obtaining his U.S. visa.

[18] In April 2011, Payne co-led a private, non-official U.S. diplomacy delegation to Libya, which included former U.S Congressman Curt Weldon, just after the February 17th uprising.

Payne served The White House as a "senior presidential advance representative" to George W. Bush, traveling with him as a volunteer to Jordan for the Red Sea Summit in June 2003.

Payne also traveled with Dick Cheney to the Middle East in 2002 and 2005, to South Korea in 2004, to Kazakhstan in 2006, and to Afghanistan for the inauguration of Hamid Karzai in December 2004.

[10][22] Payne was a part of a small team of Bush operatives, which included former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, which assisted the 2000 campaign in coordinating the three presidential debates.

[24] In July 2008 Payne was secretly videotaped discussing a $750,000 lobbying contract and offering access to senior U.S. officials (including Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Joe Biden) to the exiled Kazakhstani politician Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov (known as Eric Dos for short),[25] and suggesting a $250,000 donation to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library.