Trump Couple, Now White House Employees, Can’t Escape Conflict Laws -
By ERIC LIPTON and JESSE DRUCKERAPRIL 1, 2017
WASHINGTON — The husband-and-wife team of Jared Kushner
and Ivanka Trump, now both senior federal government officials, has been alongside President Trump as the White House has hosted dozens of chief executives and a handful of world leaders in recent weeks.
Unlike Mr. Trump, who is exempt from conflict of interest laws, both Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump — who took a formal White House position this past week — are forbidden under federal criminal and civil law to take any action
that might benefit their particular financial holdings.
The disclosures by Mr. Kushner and other White House officials released on Friday demonstrate just how complicated it is going to be to police these rules, given the vast
and extremely complex financial assets not only within the Trump family but also among dozens of aides they have selected.
John Pudner, a conservative who has helped elect Tea Party candidates to Congress and now runs a nonprofit group called Take Back Our Republic, said
that Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, if they wanted to serve in the White House, would have been better off if they had taken the difficult step of liquidating their holdings.
Jamie Gorelick, who served as deputy attorney general at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration and is now advising Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump on government ethics issues, said
that the couple could continue to hold on to so many of their assets because most of the value is tied up in buildings.
