Did Sununu Seek Jobs for a Presidential Appointment?

Updated from 1:41 p.m. with additional comments from former Bush aide

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Former President George H.W. Bush's consideration of Steve Jobs for a presidential appointment may not have been such a surprising development as his chief of staff might have been a tech geek, a former Bush aide said.

John Sununu, who is currently a major backer of Mitt Romney and was Bush's chief of staff until December 1991, may have been the person tasked that year to search for a new member on the president's Export Council.

John Sununu (right), with Bob Dole (left) and Newt Gingrich (center), when he served as former President Bush's chief of staff.

"That would not surprise me. John Sununu was very tech savvy and he would have been impressed with Jobs," said Sig Rogich, former Bush and Ronald Reagan aide, in an email.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation posted Thursday a "Full Field" investigation filed by the White House in Feb. 15, 1991, for a presidential appointment. The FBI blanked out the name of the person who filed the request.

Rogich said his guess would be that Sununu was the official who would have overseen the process. Rogich added that a president's chief of staff doesn't always initiate the interview procedure of presidential appointments, but that many do.

An executive order in 1973 established the Export Council, which consisted of only private-sector individuals to advise the president on export trade, according to the council's Web site. Today the council has 28 private-sector members appointed by the president.

No one from Apple(AAPL) currently serves on the council.

There are a few steps officials take for a presidential appointment. A name is selected and submitted after the individual agrees to the potential post. The White House gives that name to the FBI, which then asks the applicant for three references. The FBI contacts those references and asks each of them for three more references. That step is repeated until the agency is satisfied that the applicant is in good standing. The FBI reports the findings to the White House counsel, which then mulls the final decision.

-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.

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