REPORT: Transition Team Says Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to Quit Jobs, Divest Some, Not All Assets

Ivanka Trump Will Not Take a White House Job, Jared Kushner Will

Ivanka Trump is resigning from some but not all of her roles in The Trump Organization and her fashion business. Although she will step down from any formal running of the companies, she will retain an interest in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., and retain some financial interest in her fashion business, according to reports at Politico and other outlets, which cite comments made by a Trump Transition team official. It had been expected that Ivanka Trump would take a job in her father’s administration, but those plans appear to now be dashed.

Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, late Monday afternoon was officially named a Trump administration White House senior advisor. 

According to reports, Kushner’s attorney says he will resign from his real estate business and as publisher of his conservative newspaper, The New York Observer. 

Politico reports Kushner will be “divesting substantial assets to comply with federal ethics laws,” and “is expected to consult primarily on the Middle East and trade deals and receive no salary for the post.”

Kushner’s attorney, Jamie Gorelick of WilmerHale, says “Mr. Kushner is committed to complying with federal ethics laws and we have been consulting with the Office of Government Ethics regarding the steps he would take.” He reportedly “plans to file a 278 financial disclosure form, required by Cabinet nominees, and comply with the same levels of transparency voters would expect of regular senior government officials,” according to Politico.

His assets will be sold but a family member, his mother will retain control of some of the proceeds via a trust, while other assets will be sold to his brother, and to other parties.

Calling it a “positive step,” Norm Eisen, a former ethics czar under President Barack Obama said, “We need to see the details of how he will do that. And I hope his father-in-law takes a page from his book and does the same, as presidents have for the past four decades, by divesting into a blind trust or the equivalent.”

It remains unclear if Ivanka Trump will also be filing the same disclosure forms as her husband, and why her father still refuses to release his taxes and other financial information, and place his assets in a blind trust or other vehicle to reduce even the appearance of conflicts of interest, as every president for decades has done.

It is also unclear what mechanism the Trump administration will put in place to ensure there are no conflicts of interest after these initial moves, and how that will be monitored.

 

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You can respond directly to those involved in this story:

Ivanka Trump is on Twitter: @IvankaTrump
Jared Kushner is on Twitter but his account is inactive: @JaredKushner
Donald Trump is on Twitter: @RealDonaldTrump
The Trump Transition Team is on Twitter: @Transition2017

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