3. Family Matters
Relatives and family members who are currently making important decisions about what a Trump administration will look like will come under intense media scrutiny—especially for those who choose to work in the White House or take on official advisory council posts. Trump’s closest advisors have said in recent weeks that they would like to see his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, become a senior White House official, reflecting his clear and obvious role in major decisions the President-elect has made since the election.
Kushner, for instance, has been widely credited with the decision to replace Gov. Chris Christie as the head of the Trump transition efforts. There is, however, a large, potential conflict of interest looming. After former President John F. Kennedy made his brother, Robert, the attorney general, Congress passed an anti-nepotism law. That 1967 law is still on the books, and there isn’t an easy way around it—even if Kushner chooses not to take a salary as a senior White House official. It bans public officials, especially presidents, from hiring their relatives for jobs in federal agencies and Cabinet posts.
Trump advisors, however, believe the anti-nepotism law doesn’t apply to the White House—a conflict that could be tested early in Trump’s presidency if he allows his son-in-law to operate out of the West Wing. “This falls right in the bull’s eye of the statute. I think it’s illegal,” Norm Eisen, who was President Obama’s chief ethics counsel, told Politico. Other legal experts, though, feel Kushner can serve as an unpaid advisor in the White House.
Republicans, likewise, don’t see any conflicts at all in Trump’s family members managing the national government. “For goodness sake, JFK put his brother over at the Justice Department. It’s not like these things are new and unprecedented,” Rep. Tom Cole said. And if Trump wants to give Kushner or his daughter, Ivanka Trump, access to intelligence briefings, he could appoint them to White House councils like the intelligence advisory board without any oversight from Congress or intelligence agencies providing classified briefings.
https://time.com/4578431/donald-trum...interest-list/