Law doesn't bar Trump's son-in-law from serving as adviser, Justice Department legal opinion says
Photo of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump by lev radin / Shutterstock, Inc.
The federal anti-nepotism law doesn’t bar President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, from serving as a senior adviser in the White House, according to a legal opinion by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Longtime Justice Department lawyer Daniel Koffsky wrote the Jan. 20 legal opinion, report BuzzFeed, Bloomberg and the New York Times. Kushner would serve without taking a paycheck.
The legal opinion said a law passed in 1978, after the 1967 anti-nepotism law, gives the president the authority to appoint White House employees “without regard to any other provision of law regulating the employment or compensation of persons in the government service.”
Koffsky acknowledged that his office had written some legal opinions that found that presidents couldn’t appoint relatives to positions. “Although our conclusion today departs from some of that prior work,” Koffsky wrote, “we think that this departure is fully justified.”
The appointment of a relative to a formal position will subject that person to restrictions against conflicts of interest, Koffsky warned.
Kushner has agreed to divest ownership interest from investment firm Thrive Capital and the New York Observer, and will resign as CEO of his family’s real-estate company, according to Bloomberg.
