Jared Kushner to be named senior adviser to the president

President-elect Donald Trump is hiring his 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior adviser, which could be interpreted as a violation of federal anti-nepotism laws, according to a former White House ethics lawyer.

“The president-elect and I had a good meeting about the Senate’s agenda, which of course includes confirming the Cabinet appointments, (and) getting further down the road towards repealing and replacing Obamacare”, McConnell told reporters at Trump Tower. And Kushner has always been huddling with lawyers to try to figure out a way around it, including possibly accepting no paycheck and putting his assets in a blind trust, as the New York Times reported in mid-November.

Mr Kushner spearheads his family’s real estate development company, Kushner Companies, and is the publisher of the weekly New York Observer newspaper, which he acquired at age 25.

Jamie Gorelick, a NY lawyer who served as deputy attorney general for Democratic President Bill Clinton, helped advise Kushner on whether he would violate a 1967 anti-nepotism statute, saying said he would not.

Axios’ Mike Allen was the first to report Kushner’s appointment and Allen said that Kushner is seeking job applicants for his staff. The president-elect has said he plans to take steps to distance himself from his businesses, but has not provided details on how he might do that.

Kushner, married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was deeply involved in the campaign’s digital efforts and was usually at Trump’s side during the election’s closing weeks.

The news comes days after Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, reportedly settled on a home to buy in Washington, D.C. The Obamas topped Zillow’s “Most Desirable Neighbors” list for 2017, with Trump and Kushner making the list as well at number 8. The Times characterized him as the “quiet fixer” on Trump’s team, and according to the Times, Kushner helped the campaign acquire a director of communications, met with high level officials, and counseled Trump on his vice-presidential pick.

But The New York Times at the weekend spotlighted what it called the “ethical thicket” that Kushner would have to navigate while advising his father-in-law on policy that could affect his business holdings. But he has been a well-known figure in New York City for years. Chris Christie. The fact that Kushner has now whacked Christie twice suggests he has no qualms about using power to settle family grudges. The president-elect has said he intends to distance himself from his own global real estate business, but he has suggested he intends to break from precedent by retaining a stake in the company. “There were three campaign managers”, says a political consultant who knows Kushner.

Kushner also gained notoriety for his purchase of the New York Observer in 2006.