GOP Offered $10K to Prove Ayers Authored Obama Book

A Republican congressman and his brother-in-law approached an Oxford philosophy don in an attempt to prove that Barack Obama's autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Ayers, the Times of London reports. Peter Millican says he was offered $10,000 to analyze Obama's Dreams From My Father and Ayers' Fugitive Days for similarities.

Utah Rep. Chris Cannon says he merely doubted that Obama had written his own memoir, and thought “If Ayers was the author, that would be interesting.” Cannon's brother-in-law contacted Millican, but backed off when the professor said that the charges looked "very implausible" and insisted that the results be made public, no matter what they showed.