Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, has become one of Donald Trump's most trusted campaign advisers, and now he's likely to take a top job at the Trump White House, possibly senior adviser or general counsel, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing "people familiar with the presidential transition." Both incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior adviser Stephen Bannon are reportedly pushing Kushner, 35, to join the president-elect's inner circle, but there are a few problems. First up, the law.
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an anti-nepotism law that prohibits federal public officials — including members of Congress and the president — from hiring relatives. Kushner has suggested he would step around that law by not drawing a salary, but two former White House ethics lawyers say that wouldn't pass legal muster. "We're not talking about Kushner running a side task force here. We're talking about a regular staff job," said Norm Eisen, who worked for Obama. "This falls right in the bull's eye of the statute. I think it's illegal." Richard Painter, who worked in the George W. Bush White House, concurred, telling Politico: "He cannot take a take a job in the White House. Highly inappropriate.... I don't know why they think they can. Just read the language in the statute."
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