Randy Scheunemann

WASHINGTON — Randy Scheunemann operated for years deep inside Republican foreign policy circles, a burly, bearded lobbyist with powerful patrons, neoconservative credentials and little public profile.

Today, as John McCain’s top foreign policy and national security adviser, Scheunemann serves as the spokesman and surrogate for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee on issues from NATO enlargement to gun control in American cities.

Scheunemann’s dual roles came into sharp relief, and potential conflict, last week when McCain voiced impassioned support for the republic of Georgia after Russia’s invasion of its neighbor Aug. 8. Georgia, as it happened, was one of Scheunemann’s former lobbying clients.

Scheunemann, 48, told reporters on McCain’s plane that the Arizona senator had spoken by phone to Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, “every day since” the crisis began, to show his interest in Georgia’s plight.

But McCain’s adviser also had an interest in Georgia.

The pro-Western government in Tbilisi has paid $830,000 to Scheunemann’s two-member lobbying company, Orion Strategies, LLC, since 2004, according to records at the U.S. Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Office.

In all, the files show, Orion has earned $2.5 million lobbying for foreign governments since 2001. The total includes a $200,000 contract, signed April 17 this year, with Georgia’s National Security Council. McCain spoke by phone with Saakashvili that same day, and then issued a statement denouncing Russia’s moves to “undermine Georgian sovereignty,” records show.

Reached by phone Friday in Colorado, where McCain was campaigning, the former lobbyist declined comment and referred questions to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

Rogers denied even the appearance of impropriety. Scheune-mann’s former advocacy for foreign governments does not affect the policy advice he gives McCain, Rogers said.

He said Scheunemann “stopped working for Georgia” on March 1 and has taken “no compensation” from Orion since May 15, the day McCain barred registered lobbyists from joining his campaign staff to avoid potential conflicts of interest.