US President Donald Trump, flanked by senior advisor Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and Staff Secretary Rob Porter in the Oval Office. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2064363/trumps-son-law-kushner-can-take-white-house-job-us United States & Canada
Trump’s son-in-law Kushner can take White House job, US Justice Department says
Jared Kushner will take the role without pay and to divest from Thrive Capital, an investment firm and ownership interest in newspaper to comply with government ethics standards
Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, right, her husband Jared Kushner, left, and their daughter Arabella Kushner, center, take photographs on the Truman Balcony of the White House on the first full day of Trump's administration. Photo: AP
The US Justice Department said President Donald Trump isn’t prohibited by a federal anti-nepotism statute from appointing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to a job as a senior White House adviser.
Daniel Koffsky, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in a memorandum that the White House is exempt from a 1967 law that prevents public officials from appointing relatives to federal agencies they can control, and therefore the law “would not prohibit the contemplated appointment.”
The opinion appears to clear the way for Trump’s decision to name Kushner to a role that will have him working with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon. In a statement this month Trump called Kushner a “tremendous asset and trusted adviser”.
Kushner will take the role without pay and, according to his lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, has agreed to divest from Thrive Capital, an investment firm. He’ll also divest his ownership interest in the New York Observer, one of only a few major newspapers to endorse Trump’s candidacy, and will resign as chief executive officer of Kushner Cos., his family’s real estate company, to comply with government ethics standards.
Other presidents have relied on family members for informal counsel, even on key issues. President John Kennedy picked his brother Robert as attorney general, while President Bill Clinton put his wife, Hillary, largely in charge of a failed campaign to overhaul the nation’s health care system.
In his opinion, Koffsky, said the White House is not a federal “agency” and that the president’s authority “permits him to make appointments to the White House office that the anti-nepotism status might otherwise forbid.”
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner dance at the Freedom Ball in Washington. Photo: AP
“In choosing his personal staff, the president enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” Koffsky wrote.
Koffsky is a career employee of the Justice Department, not a political appointee. In 2013, under Attorney General Eric Holder, he won an award that recognises “exceptional contributions” to the government. He also, in 2015, was presented with an award for excellence in government service from the DC Bar.