Bush Cites ‘Appearance Problem’ With Sununu : Ethics: The President calls his aide’s car trip to New York appropriate as more flights on corporate planes are disclosed.

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu’s travel arrangements have created “an appearance problem,” President Bush said Wednesday, as the White House disclosed that Sununu flew to Chicago last week aboard an airplane owned by a key executive in a construction and real estate company that does extensive business with the U.S. government.

With Sununu looking on impassively, Bush told reporters that his top aide’s use of a government automobile and driver to travel to New York for a stamp auction “was appropriate,” and that what matters is not appearances, but fact.

“There’s plenty of reason that this was done, and it doesn’t set a precedent,” he said, adding that Sununu is “doing a first-class job” and has been the victim of “piling-on” by the news media.

Still, even as Bush defended his embattled chief of staff, he conceded for the first time that the travel flap created “an appearance problem” for the Administration.

As the President moved to douse the latest controversy to swirl around Sununu, there were these developments:

--The White House disclosed that between May 20 and Tuesday evening, Sununu used corporate aircraft five times to attend GOP fund-raising events. One of the trips, to Chicago to raise money for the Republican Governors’ Assn., was aboard an airplane owned in part by Howard Bender, the White House said. His company, Blake Construction Co., builds and leases buildings for the government, and Bender figured prominently in a 1988 independent counsel’s probe of allegations concerning former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III’s personal finances.

--It was learned that Sununu used his family car to make a roughly eight-hour round trip from Washington to Williamsburg, Va., to attend a Republican Senate Campaign Committee fund-raising event last Friday and Saturday. The next day, during an appearance on a Sunday talk show, he defended his use of a government car a few days earlier for the New York trip because, he said, his job required him to be in constant touch with the White House.

“I have to be able to communicate, to work on sensitive papers, to coordinate the White House activities, even while I’m traveling,” Sununu said on the ABC News program “This Week with David Brinkley.”

For the second day in a row, Sununu’s office refused to answer a reporter’s questions about his travel.

In a speech Tuesday evening in Des Moines--which he reached aboard an airplane lent by an insurance company--Sununu showed no inclination to retreat, insisting that he would not take advice from “self-styled experts” on how or when he would travel.

The White House on Wednesday said “two or three” of Sununu’s requests for approval of other flights aboard corporate planes were rejected by the President’s counsel, C. Boyden Gray. It would not disclose the owners of the aircraft or the reasons for rejecting the use of the planes by Sununu, other than to say they involved a potential conflict of interest.

Nevertheless, the use of the airplane owned by Bender, whose business has been closely linked to the federal government, spotlighted the difficulty in finding corporate sponsors without raising the potential of a conflict of interest.

Bender came under investigation because in 1985 he funded a $40,000 salary for Meese’s wife, Ursula, at the National Capital Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, at a time when his company was negotiating with the Justice Department to renew a lease on a building he owned.

The independent counsel found that, although Bender “may have had ulterior motives” in providing the salary for Ursula Meese, there was no evidence that his efforts played a role in persuading the Justice Department to renew the lease.

Bender could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In addition to the flight aboard corporate jets to Chicago on June 11 and Des Moines on Tuesday, the White House said Sununu made these trips:

--To St. Louis and back, on May 20, aboard a jet provided by Donald Bryant, who runs an executive benefits firm, to attend a fund-raising event for Republican Gov. John Ashcroft.

--To Portland, Me., and back, on June 7, aboard an airplane provided by Fiber Materials Inc., of Biddeford, Me., to take part in a fund-raising event for the Maine Republican Party.

--And, as previously disclosed, on June 12, from Morristown, N.J., to Washington, aboard a jet provided by the Beneficial Corp., a credit company, after attending the New York stamp auction and then a GOP fund-raiser in New Jersey.

Bryant said he was asked by Missouri Republican Party officials to provide round-trip air transportation for Sununu. He said he agreed because he intended to be in Washington anyway on the day Sununu wanted to fly to St. Louis. Sununu and an aide, Edward M. Rogers, flew with Bryant abroad his Lockheed Jetstar. The plane then took Sununu and Rogers back to Washington later that night and returned to St. Louis without any passengers.

Bryant, who estimates that the jet costs $1,500 an hour to operate, was not reimbursed for the flight.

Party officials told Bryant that he was chosen to transport Sununu primarily because he has no business interests with the federal government. “I was not lobbying for anything,” he said.

Officials of Fiber Materials Inc. did not return telephone calls for comment on the June 7 flight provided for Sununu. One of the company’s executives, Maurice Subilia Jr., is an occasional contributor to GOP candidates. He lives in Kennebunkport, Me., near Bush’s vacation residence.

Bush’s comments Wednesday about Sununu’s travel were his first in public since Newsweek magazine disclosed that the chief of staff--whose use of Air Force jets to travel on personal and political business was cut back by Bush on May 9--used the government car for the 225-mile trip to New York on June 12.

Bush said: “When you look at the facts surrounding this particular trip, this beating that he’s taken is unwarranted, in my view. Nobody likes the appearance of impropriety. On the other hand, I think fairness dictates you ought to look at the particular fact about it.

“We had heavy--a lot of very important negotiation on legislation. We have a very important speech that needed fine-tuning. He knew I wasn’t happy with that. He made plenty of phone calls.”

The President gave a speech that night to about 2,000 guests on the White House South Lawn in which he criticized congressional Democrats and pressed for approval of several Administration domestic programs.

Bush also said his defense of Sununu “doesn’t say anybody that has access to a (government) car can go anyplace anyone wants at any time.”

The President, speaking with reporters during a picture-taking session at the start of a meeting with House Republican leaders, said he had discussed the matter with Sununu.

Staff writers David Lauter and Dwight Morris contributed to this story.