Donald Trump tests nepotism law, names Son-in-law Kushner as senior adviser

Donald Trump has appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner  as a senior adviser into his  administration on Monday, an appointment that would further entangle the incoming White House team in a web of potential conflicts of interest and accusations of nepotism.

For months, Kushner has had Trump’s ear in an informal role alongside the businessman’s three grown children: Donald Jr, Eric and Kushner’s wife, Ivanka.

In a statement, Trump’s transition team said that Kushner had “formed an effective leadership team” with the president-elect’s chosen chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

Kushner, 35, will need to argue that a federal anti-nepotism law does not apply to him. The law, enacted in 1967 after John F Kennedy appointed his brother as attorney general, prohibits any federal official from hiring family members to an agency or office which he or she leads.

The law has loopholes, however. Ethics experts say that Kushner could retain a technically unofficial role, for instance as a “consultant”, in order to skirt the law. Trump’s transition team said Kushner “has chosen to forego his salary while serving in the administration”.

Attorneys for Kushner reportedly want to argue that the White House is technically not an agency, and that therefore Trump and Kushner would be exempt from nepotism rules. Trump’s transition team has argued that this loophole would also make Trump exempt from his own possible conflicts of interest.