SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
White House Ethics Loophole for Ivanka 'Doesn't Work,' Say Watchdogs
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and other government watchdogs tell White House counsel to reconsider Ivanka Trump's "highly unusual and inappropriate arrangement"
Mar 24, 2017
Ivanka Trump's bizarre new White House role that grants her a West Wing office and security clearance, but no official title or salary, simply does not work.
That's the message from government watchdogs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, and the Campaign Legal Center, in a letter (pdf) sent Friday to White House counsel Don McGahn.
The ethics advocates express "deep concern about the highly unusual and inappropriate arrangement that is being proposed for Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter, to play a formalized role in the White House without being required to comply with the ethics and disclosure requirements that apply to White House employees," arguing that the "arrangement appears designed to allow Ms. Trump to avoid the ethics, conflict-of-interest, and other rules that apply to White House employees."
The letter, signed by former White House legal counsels Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, goes on to describe the myriad ethics problems with Ivanka's role:
As described in published reports, Ms. Trump in her role as White House adviser is assuming many of the indicia of a White House employee--she will have a West Wing office; she will receive a security clearance; she will be issued government communications devices and, according to these reports, she will participate in high-level White House meetings on a regular basis and provide advice to the President on a broad range of issues.
Under her arrangement, however, as the New York Times reports, she will "not hold a formal job at the White House and therefore is not likely to be considered a federal employee under the ethics rules, which prohibit government workers from participating in matters that can enrich their personal business interests..."
"The basic problem in the proposed relationship is that it appears to be trying to create a middle space that does not exist," the letter explains. "On the one hand Ms. Trump's position will provide her with the privileges and opportunities for public service that attach to being a White House employee. On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to White House employees."
Citing a prior decision from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding President Donald Trump's appointment of his son-in-law, Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, to an advisor role, the groups say that the president "cannot have it both ways" when it comes to giving family members prominent roles in his staff.
The letter quotes the OLC decision on the matter:
A President wanting a relative's advice on governmental matters therefore has a choice: to seek that advice on an unofficial, ad hoc basis without conferring the status and imposing the responsibilities that accompany formal White House positions; or to appoint his relative to the White House under title 3 and subject him to substantial restrictions against conflicts of interest.
"That is the core problem with the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump," the letter notes. "[S]he is seeking the 'status' of assuming what is in fact, if not in name, a 'formal White House position' (one that includes a West Wing office, a security clearance, and an issues portfolio), but at the same time the arrangement avoids the 'set of legal restrictions' that accompany such positions."
The letter continues:
Published reports quote Ms. Trump's attorney as saying that her job "will be to serve as the president's 'eyes and ears' while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women's empowerment issues." The description of what will be provided to Ms. Trump in her White House role, combined with the broad portfolio she will have, makes her a government employee under the applicable standards.
The watchdogs also address Ivanka's claim that she will "voluntarily" follow ethics rules for White House employees. "If voluntary compliance with the law was sufficient to safeguard the public interest embodied in the ethics and conflicts rules, then all federal employees could be similarly held to a voluntary standard," they write. "But of course that is not, and should not be, the law."
"In sum," the groups conclude, "under the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump, she will not be a White House employee and will continue to own businesses that emphasize her brand name. As such, she will not make the commitment set forth in the oath of office that White House employees take and will remain unbound by government ethics and conflicts of interest rules, except to the extent that Ms. Trump voluntarily chooses to comply with them. This arrangement does not work and needs to be revised."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Ivanka Trump's bizarre new White House role that grants her a West Wing office and security clearance, but no official title or salary, simply does not work.
That's the message from government watchdogs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, and the Campaign Legal Center, in a letter (pdf) sent Friday to White House counsel Don McGahn.
The ethics advocates express "deep concern about the highly unusual and inappropriate arrangement that is being proposed for Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter, to play a formalized role in the White House without being required to comply with the ethics and disclosure requirements that apply to White House employees," arguing that the "arrangement appears designed to allow Ms. Trump to avoid the ethics, conflict-of-interest, and other rules that apply to White House employees."
The letter, signed by former White House legal counsels Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, goes on to describe the myriad ethics problems with Ivanka's role:
As described in published reports, Ms. Trump in her role as White House adviser is assuming many of the indicia of a White House employee--she will have a West Wing office; she will receive a security clearance; she will be issued government communications devices and, according to these reports, she will participate in high-level White House meetings on a regular basis and provide advice to the President on a broad range of issues.
Under her arrangement, however, as the New York Times reports, she will "not hold a formal job at the White House and therefore is not likely to be considered a federal employee under the ethics rules, which prohibit government workers from participating in matters that can enrich their personal business interests..."
"The basic problem in the proposed relationship is that it appears to be trying to create a middle space that does not exist," the letter explains. "On the one hand Ms. Trump's position will provide her with the privileges and opportunities for public service that attach to being a White House employee. On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to White House employees."
Citing a prior decision from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding President Donald Trump's appointment of his son-in-law, Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, to an advisor role, the groups say that the president "cannot have it both ways" when it comes to giving family members prominent roles in his staff.
The letter quotes the OLC decision on the matter:
A President wanting a relative's advice on governmental matters therefore has a choice: to seek that advice on an unofficial, ad hoc basis without conferring the status and imposing the responsibilities that accompany formal White House positions; or to appoint his relative to the White House under title 3 and subject him to substantial restrictions against conflicts of interest.
"That is the core problem with the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump," the letter notes. "[S]he is seeking the 'status' of assuming what is in fact, if not in name, a 'formal White House position' (one that includes a West Wing office, a security clearance, and an issues portfolio), but at the same time the arrangement avoids the 'set of legal restrictions' that accompany such positions."
The letter continues:
Published reports quote Ms. Trump's attorney as saying that her job "will be to serve as the president's 'eyes and ears' while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women's empowerment issues." The description of what will be provided to Ms. Trump in her White House role, combined with the broad portfolio she will have, makes her a government employee under the applicable standards.
The watchdogs also address Ivanka's claim that she will "voluntarily" follow ethics rules for White House employees. "If voluntary compliance with the law was sufficient to safeguard the public interest embodied in the ethics and conflicts rules, then all federal employees could be similarly held to a voluntary standard," they write. "But of course that is not, and should not be, the law."
"In sum," the groups conclude, "under the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump, she will not be a White House employee and will continue to own businesses that emphasize her brand name. As such, she will not make the commitment set forth in the oath of office that White House employees take and will remain unbound by government ethics and conflicts of interest rules, except to the extent that Ms. Trump voluntarily chooses to comply with them. This arrangement does not work and needs to be revised."
Ivanka Trump's bizarre new White House role that grants her a West Wing office and security clearance, but no official title or salary, simply does not work.
That's the message from government watchdogs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy 21, and the Campaign Legal Center, in a letter (pdf) sent Friday to White House counsel Don McGahn.
The ethics advocates express "deep concern about the highly unusual and inappropriate arrangement that is being proposed for Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter, to play a formalized role in the White House without being required to comply with the ethics and disclosure requirements that apply to White House employees," arguing that the "arrangement appears designed to allow Ms. Trump to avoid the ethics, conflict-of-interest, and other rules that apply to White House employees."
The letter, signed by former White House legal counsels Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, goes on to describe the myriad ethics problems with Ivanka's role:
As described in published reports, Ms. Trump in her role as White House adviser is assuming many of the indicia of a White House employee--she will have a West Wing office; she will receive a security clearance; she will be issued government communications devices and, according to these reports, she will participate in high-level White House meetings on a regular basis and provide advice to the President on a broad range of issues.
Under her arrangement, however, as the New York Times reports, she will "not hold a formal job at the White House and therefore is not likely to be considered a federal employee under the ethics rules, which prohibit government workers from participating in matters that can enrich their personal business interests..."
"The basic problem in the proposed relationship is that it appears to be trying to create a middle space that does not exist," the letter explains. "On the one hand Ms. Trump's position will provide her with the privileges and opportunities for public service that attach to being a White House employee. On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to White House employees."
Citing a prior decision from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding President Donald Trump's appointment of his son-in-law, Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, to an advisor role, the groups say that the president "cannot have it both ways" when it comes to giving family members prominent roles in his staff.
The letter quotes the OLC decision on the matter:
A President wanting a relative's advice on governmental matters therefore has a choice: to seek that advice on an unofficial, ad hoc basis without conferring the status and imposing the responsibilities that accompany formal White House positions; or to appoint his relative to the White House under title 3 and subject him to substantial restrictions against conflicts of interest.
"That is the core problem with the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump," the letter notes. "[S]he is seeking the 'status' of assuming what is in fact, if not in name, a 'formal White House position' (one that includes a West Wing office, a security clearance, and an issues portfolio), but at the same time the arrangement avoids the 'set of legal restrictions' that accompany such positions."
The letter continues:
Published reports quote Ms. Trump's attorney as saying that her job "will be to serve as the president's 'eyes and ears' while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women's empowerment issues." The description of what will be provided to Ms. Trump in her White House role, combined with the broad portfolio she will have, makes her a government employee under the applicable standards.
The watchdogs also address Ivanka's claim that she will "voluntarily" follow ethics rules for White House employees. "If voluntary compliance with the law was sufficient to safeguard the public interest embodied in the ethics and conflicts rules, then all federal employees could be similarly held to a voluntary standard," they write. "But of course that is not, and should not be, the law."
"In sum," the groups conclude, "under the proposed arrangement for Ms. Trump, she will not be a White House employee and will continue to own businesses that emphasize her brand name. As such, she will not make the commitment set forth in the oath of office that White House employees take and will remain unbound by government ethics and conflicts of interest rules, except to the extent that Ms. Trump voluntarily chooses to comply with them. This arrangement does not work and needs to be revised."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.