Ivanka Trump A Federal Employee: Appointment Violates Nepotism Law, Former Obama Ethics Lawyer Says

Norman Eisen, a former White House ethics lawyer under the Barack Obama administration, said Wednesday on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that Ivanka Trump's official role at the White House as an assistant to her father President Donald Trump violates nepotism laws.

Former President George W. Bush's ethics lawyer Richard Painter reportedly also agreed with Eisen.

"My view — and it's a bipartisan view, professor [Richard] Painter, the Bush ethics czar, agrees with me — is that the nepotism statute does apply," Eisen said. "For decades, the Justice Department held [the position], 'Yes, the nepotism statute does apply to the White House office.' It's a murky area, reasonable minds can disagree. President Trump got an opinion from the Justice Department that the nepotism statute doesn't apply to his White House. We disagree with that opinion."

An announcement was made early Wednesday that the first daughter will become a government employee at the White House and will serve as the president's assistant. Earlier this month, the first daughter was offered an office in the West Wing of the White House adjacent to one of Trump's most trusted senior advisers. However, ethics watchdogs were also critical of her unofficial role and said that it would allow her to avoid certain major disclosures and ethics rules that one has to follow while serving in the government.

"I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees," Ivanka Trump said in response to the critics' concerns, CNN reported. "Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role."

The nepotism law, passed in 1967, states that "no public official from the president down to a low-level manager at a federal agency may hire or promote a relative." However, the law had an exception, which said that any employee violating the law is "not entitled to pay" by the federal government. This exception appears to provide the opportunity to Ivanka Trump to be an unpaid employee while serving in the government.

When her husband Jared Kushner, joined in January as Trump's senior adviser, the Justice Department said that his appointment did not violate federal anti-nepotism laws.

"In choosing his personal staff, the President enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office," wrote Daniel Koffsky, deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel that deals with the interpretation of federal laws, CNN reported.