Sununu Stands Behind Tower

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, noting that President Bush continues to support Defense Secretary-designate John Tower and expects his confirmation, said Sunday that every check of allegations about the nominee “has produced a dry hole.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee is retracing investigations into allegations against Tower that were undertaken by Bush aides before his nomination went to the Senate. Sununu said: “We chased down through the FBI all those allegations.

“The Senate has to work its course,” Sununu said on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley” television panel show. “But the President is convinced that the same thing will happen as they go through that; that those allegations will be proven not to have any basis, and when they do vote, John Tower will be confirmed.”

There was no mention during the interview of a report in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times that cited discrepancies between Tower’s recent testimony about his business dealings with British Aerospace Inc., an aircraft and weapons manufacturer, and statements he submitted in a divorce deposition filed in 1987.

Last week, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he headed when he was a Republican senator from Texas, that he represented the British firm only on civil aviation matters. But he said in the divorce deposition he received $8,000 a month from June, 1986, to December, 1988, to represent the firm on varied matters, including “selling certain systems to the Defense Department.”