On Thursday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway sat in the White House briefing room and urged Americans to buy Ivanka Trump clothes on Fox News, explicitly calling it a "free commercial." House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and top Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), as promised, sent a joint letter to the head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, seeking advice on "appropriate disciplinary action (such as reprimand, suspension, demotion, or dismissal)" over Conway's comments.
"Conway's statements clearly violate the ethical principles for federal employees and are unacceptable," Chaffetz and Cummings wrote, as well as appear "to violate federal ethics regulations." They asked Shaub to "act promptly" and get back to them, even while noting a crucial "additional challenge, which is that the president, as the ultimate disciplinary authority for White House employees, has an inherent conflict of interest since Conway's statements relate to his daughter's private business."
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