Ethics office seeks probe of Conway comments

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government’s ethics watchdog urged the White House to investigate and possibly discipline President Donald Trump’s counsellor Kellyanne Conway for comments she made about Ivanka Trump’s fashion line, according to a letter made public Tuesday.

The Office of Government Ethics wrote to White House attorneys that there was reason to believe that Conway violated the standards of ethical conduct for executive employees by endorsing the president’s daughter’s products during a television interview last week.

The government ethics office’s recommendation was the latest in a series of complications for Conway.

On Monday, Conway said in a television appearance that national security adviser Michael Flynn had Trump’s full confidence, hours before Trump fired him. Over the past few weeks, Conway has also referred to a “Bowling Green Massacre” that never occurred, and she was caught up in a public feud with news network CNN, which said it decided not to have her on a Sunday show.

The comments that got Conway in hot water with ethics officials came during a Feb. 9 interview on Fox News. Appearing from the White House briefing room, Conway urged viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff” before adding that she was going to “give a free commercial here. Go buy it today everybody, you can find it online.”

The comments came a day after Trump tweeted that he believed his daughter had been treated “unfairly” by the department store Nordstrom, which had recently dropped the fashion line, citing declining sales.

In the letter to the White House, Walter Shaub, the director of the government ethics office, wrote that Conway’s comments appear to be a “clear violation of the prohibition against misuse of position.”