The Justice Department has concluded that it would be lawful for President Donald Trump to appoint his son-in-law Jared Kushner to a White House post, Politico reported Saturday.
According to the report, a 14-page opinion dated Friday from Justice's Office of Legal Counsel asserts that a federal anti-nepotism law that applies to agencies across the executive branch does not cover the White House itself.
The anti-nepotism law dates to 1967 but Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel Koffsky concluded that another law passed in 1978 and conferring broad authority on the president to appoint White House officials essentially overrides the earlier anti-nepotism measure.
"We believe that the President's special hiring authority [in the 1978 law] permits him to make appointments to the White House Office that the anti-nepotism statute might otherwise forbid," Koffsky wrote in the opinion quoted by Politico.
The opinion clears the way for Kushner, a real estate developer who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, to serve as a senior adviser to the president.
Trump, who thinks highly of his son-in-law, recently named Kushner as a senior White House adviser who would deal, among other things, with the Israeli-Palestinian Authority conflict and other Middle East issues.
Trump had previously said he “would love” to have Kushner involved in his new administration and would particularly like his help in dealing with other nations and Middle East peace.
On Thursday, Trump heaped praise on his son-in-law and told him, “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can. All my life I’ve been hearing that’s the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job.”