Ivanka Trump to step down from businesses: reports
- By AFP -
- Jan 10, 2017
NEW YORK: Ivanka Trump, America’s incoming first daughter and wife of newly named White House special advisor Jared Kushner, will step down from the Trump Organization and her own label, US media reported on Tuesday.
The reports came just hours after President-elect Donald Trump announced that her husband would take on a top-level job as special advisor to the incoming Republican commander-in-chief.
They suggest an effort by Ivanka Trump, vice president of development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization who set up her own company that sells clothes, shoes and jewelry, to comply with ethics laws.
The couple are destined to move from New York to Washington, reportedly snapping up a new home in an upscale suburb, but US media do not expect Ivanka to take on a formal job at the moment.
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Her husband’s appointment comes despite a federal nepotism law, passed after then-president John F. Kennedy appointed his brother as attorney general, that prohibits any president from hiring a relative.
Kushner’s lawyer Jamie Gorelick told the Washington Post said she was confident that the law does not apply to Kushner’s appointment.
In the past, Trump aides have drawn a distinction between cabinet-level jobs and positions within the White House, suggesting that the latter carry more leeway for the president to appoint whomever he wants.
Kushner’s lawyer has said he will resign as CEO of Kushner Companies, his property development firm, and “divest substantial assets in accordance with federal guidelines.”
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The Post reported that while his wife plans to resign from the Trump Organization and step away from her company, she will focus — at least in the short term — on settling her family into Washington.
She came under fire shortly after the election, when her company used her appearance in a family television interview to market a $10,000 gold bracelet that she wore during the segment.
The couple’s moves to break their business ties will compound pressure on the president-elect to do the same.
He is set to give his first news conference since the election on Wednesday, at which he is expected to lay out his own plans for the family business during his tenure at the White House.