Ethical Alarm Bells Raised Over Trump's "Shadow Cabinet" of Advisers
"President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will be named a senior adviser in the administration, according to reports, an announcement that brought new scrutiny to the potential conflicts of interest among Trump's so-called "shadow" officials—who, unlike his cabinet nominees, do not have to go through a congressional confirmation process. Kushner and other official and unofficial "advisers" like Trump's daughter Ivanka, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski make up part of a team that has the president's ear and is expected to be instrumental in shaping future policies—but will take their places without being held to account for any potential ethics violations, as the Washington Post explained Sunday. "With confirmation hearings set to start for Trump's cabinet, ethics experts are voicing alarm about several other confidants of the president-elect—dubbed the 'shadow cabinet' by one—who might not be subject to such scrutiny and could face a tangle of potential conflicts between their personal interests and those of the public," wrote the Post's John Wagner and Ylan Q. Mui. The news comes just days after the New York Times reported that while Kushner has been aiding the transition team, he has also been pursuing a real estate deal with a Chinese financial firm with close ties to the state. His dealings with the Anbang Insurance Group highlight "the ethical thicket he would have to navigate while advising his father-in-law on policy that could affect his bottom line," the Times reported. Former White House ethics lawyers Norman Eisen and Richard Painter told the Post that some of the advisory positions Trump is considering fall into "very murky territory," and that "it poses an enormous risk to have a shadow cabinet." Eisen and Painter, who also penned an op-ed for the Guardian calling for all of Trump's cabinet hearings to be delayed, now sit on the board of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group."
