Justice Dept.: Trump’s son-in-law can take job

The White House is exempt from a 1967 nepotism law

WASHINGTON –– The Justice Department said President Donald Trump isn’t prohibited by a federal anti-nepotism statute from appointing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser.

Daniel L. 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, so 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 see 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. 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 antinepotism status might otherwise forbid.”

“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.