Abramoff said he finds it hard to believe Bush doesn't remember the 10 or so photos he and members of his family had snapped with the president and first lady.
''He (Bush) has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met,'' Abramoff wrote in an e-mail, according to Vanity Fair's April issue being released this week. ''Perhaps he has forgotten everything. Who knows?''
''I had my picture taken with him, evidently,'' Bush said of Abramoff on Jan. 26. ''I've had my picture taken with a lot of people.''
''I frankly don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy,'' Bush added. ''I don't know him.''
A few days later, Abramoff wrote to Washingtonian magazine that he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.
Abramoff told Vanity Fair that he once was invited to Bush's Texas ranch where he would have joined with other big Bush fundraisers. Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, said he didn't go because the event fell on the Sabbath.
The lobbyist said that when Bush made a speech to fundraisers in 2003, he sat just a few feet from the president. Abramoff, the only lobbyist on the dais, was seated between Republican Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Orrin Hatch of Utah.
Three former associates of Abramoff have told The Associated Press the lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through its deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove.
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