Ethics experts criticize the new role Ivanka Trump has stepped into as ‘Assistant to the President’. Several weeks ago the White House announced that President Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka,  35, was going to be taking an office in the West Wing and a security clearance. This made ethics expert raise concern that this role may allow Ivanka to sidestep transparency rules and disclosures.

On this issue, Ivanka has agreed to “voluntarily comply to with all ethics rules” and not take a paid salary. Her lawyer Jamie Gorelick stated that she will file any financial disclosures needed. Though she isn’t formally joining her father’s administration, Ivanka promises she will be subjected to the same standards as any other federal employee.

“I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and personal counsel to the unprecedented nature of my role,” Ivanka says.  In order to gain further trust, Ivanka has given up management of her fashion label to the company’s president and also leadership role with Trump Organization (except she will “continue to receive fixed payments from the real estate firm”).

A White House spokesman says, “Ivanka’s service as an unpaid employee furthers our commitment to ethics, transparency, and compliance and affords her increased opportunities to lead initiatives driving real policy benefits for the American public that would not have been available to her previously.”

Ivanka says she is looking forward to working with her father and husband Jared Kushner (also an unpaid official), the senior White House adviser and  recent head of the new White House Office of American Innovation.

(Source: BBC News)