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Trump To Reportedly Name Son-In-Law Jared Kushner As Senior Adviser
Danielle Kurtzleben
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, walks through the lobby of Trump Tower with his wife Ivanka on November 18, 2016 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Donald Trump will name son-in-law Jared Kushner a senior advisor in his White House, multiple news outlets are reporting.
Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway tweeted on Monday.
Kushner, a 36-year-old real-estate developer and publisher of the New York Observer, has been married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka, since 2009. When it was reported last week that Kushner and Ivanka Trump would be moving to Washington, D.C., it fed into speculation that one or both would serve as advisors in the Trump administration.
Bringing family members into the White House may prove difficult, though. That's because of a 1967 anti-nepotism law, inspired by another famous family, as NPR's Jim Zarroli recently reported:
The anti-nepotism law was passed by Congress in response to President John F. Kennedy's decision to appoint his brother Robert as attorney general, says Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
"It was very controversial at the time. Lyndon Johnson in particular did not like that, and when he became president he helped shepherd this anti-nepotism law through the U.S. Congress," West says.
But it's not entirely clear what that law means. Here is what the statute lays out, as NPR's Ailsa Chang reported in November:
"A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official."
The question now is what exactly "agency" means, Chang reported. This question has come up before — in a 1993 case pertaining President Bill Clinton, who appointed wife Hillary to head up a health care reform task force. In that case (which was not in fact about nepotism at all), the judge mentioned in his decision that the statute didn't seem to apply to White House staff. But that still isn't settled law, Chang also reported.
"There's plenty of disagreement in the legal community about whether that bit from Judge Silberman's opinion is legally binding because it wasn't part of the reasoning for the central holding in the case."
Even leaving aside the appointment's legality, it could also raise plenty of ethical questions. In a recent piece, the New York Times laid out the many possibilities for conflicts of interest to arise with Kushner in the White House. For example, the Times reports that Kushner "played a pivotal role in persuading" Trump to appoint Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn — whose bank loaned money to the Kushner Companies — as director of the National Economic Council.
Kushner's legal counsel, Jamie Gorelick — who served as deputy attorney general during Bill Clinton's administration — told NPR's Jackie Northam on Monday that Kushner plans to divest from his real estate holdings in anticipation of serving in public office. "He is going to restructure his business, so that he will no longer have any active involvement in Kushner company entities, which are real estate entities mostly in New York. He will divest a substantial number of his assets, and for any of those that remain he will abide by all the appropriate recusal requirements of the ethical guidelines," Gorelick said.
Gorelick would not confirm Kushner's appointment. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway tweeted out an article with the news, but later told NPR that tweeting out the article was just that — and not implicit confirmation.
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/09/50899...me-son-in-law-jared-kushner-as-senior-advisor
Danielle Kurtzleben
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, walks through the lobby of Trump Tower with his wife Ivanka on November 18, 2016 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Donald Trump will name son-in-law Jared Kushner a senior advisor in his White House, multiple news outlets are reporting.
Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway tweeted on Monday.
Kushner, a 36-year-old real-estate developer and publisher of the New York Observer, has been married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka, since 2009. When it was reported last week that Kushner and Ivanka Trump would be moving to Washington, D.C., it fed into speculation that one or both would serve as advisors in the Trump administration.
Bringing family members into the White House may prove difficult, though. That's because of a 1967 anti-nepotism law, inspired by another famous family, as NPR's Jim Zarroli recently reported:
The anti-nepotism law was passed by Congress in response to President John F. Kennedy's decision to appoint his brother Robert as attorney general, says Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
"It was very controversial at the time. Lyndon Johnson in particular did not like that, and when he became president he helped shepherd this anti-nepotism law through the U.S. Congress," West says.
But it's not entirely clear what that law means. Here is what the statute lays out, as NPR's Ailsa Chang reported in November:
"A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official."
The question now is what exactly "agency" means, Chang reported. This question has come up before — in a 1993 case pertaining President Bill Clinton, who appointed wife Hillary to head up a health care reform task force. In that case (which was not in fact about nepotism at all), the judge mentioned in his decision that the statute didn't seem to apply to White House staff. But that still isn't settled law, Chang also reported.
"There's plenty of disagreement in the legal community about whether that bit from Judge Silberman's opinion is legally binding because it wasn't part of the reasoning for the central holding in the case."
Even leaving aside the appointment's legality, it could also raise plenty of ethical questions. In a recent piece, the New York Times laid out the many possibilities for conflicts of interest to arise with Kushner in the White House. For example, the Times reports that Kushner "played a pivotal role in persuading" Trump to appoint Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn — whose bank loaned money to the Kushner Companies — as director of the National Economic Council.
Kushner's legal counsel, Jamie Gorelick — who served as deputy attorney general during Bill Clinton's administration — told NPR's Jackie Northam on Monday that Kushner plans to divest from his real estate holdings in anticipation of serving in public office. "He is going to restructure his business, so that he will no longer have any active involvement in Kushner company entities, which are real estate entities mostly in New York. He will divest a substantial number of his assets, and for any of those that remain he will abide by all the appropriate recusal requirements of the ethical guidelines," Gorelick said.
Gorelick would not confirm Kushner's appointment. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway tweeted out an article with the news, but later told NPR that tweeting out the article was just that — and not implicit confirmation.
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/09/50899...me-son-in-law-jared-kushner-as-senior-advisor
