As Donald Trump appoints his son-in-law to be a “Senior Advisor to the President,” the ethics issues abound. Jared Kushner’s lawyer assures us that it’s not a violation of a federal anti-nepotism law because the law applies to agencies and the White House is not an agency and … should therefore be held to a lower standard, or something. In the same spirit of acknowledging that ethics issues exist while completely dodging them, Kushner is going to do more to divest himself from his business interests than his popular vote-losing father-in-law has. But the prodigal son-in-law is still not doing enough to adhere to actual meaningful ethics standards.
Kushner plans to sell some of his real estate investments … to a family member. Others, he’ll just stop managing himself. What a massive concession to ethical concerns that is! Oh, but:
Even with these measures, Mr. Kushner will still have links to his family’s empire, which owns property across the country and relies on often-opaque foreign money.
Recent maneuvers over the tower at 666 Fifth Avenue underscore the complications. On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Mr. Kushner had been negotiating to redevelop the building with Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese financial firm with a murky ownership structure and state connections.
The negotiations began about six months ago, around the time Mr. Trump clinched the Republican nomination. While the family trust will take over Mr. Kushner’s stake in the building, the value of his interest and other details of the transaction are not known. And as a White House adviser on issues including trade, he is likely to counsel the president on America’s relationship with China.
If Jared Kushner is half as smart as the puff pieces on him keep telling us he is, he can definitely get around his semi-divestment to channel money either to himself or to his immediate family.
In ethics as in so many other things, Kushner is the smooth, friendly face of the same ugly corruption embodied by his orange father-in-law.