that s the key word. is the white house staff an agency? the answer is, chris, that nobody knows for sure, but the answer is probably not. the courts have said that for other purposes of other laws, the administrative procedures act, the freedom of information act, the white house staff is not an agency. and in the lawsuit that was brought against hillary clinton s position on the clinton task force in the 90s,s that went up to the court of appeals here. it didn t decide that question either. it decided that case on another basis. but it said, the white house staff is probably not an agency. they noted these other decisions. and they said, you know, even if the nepotism law applies, which it probably doesn t, but even if it does, it says, you can t put these people on the payroll. well, a spouse, a relative could work for nothing. so, the legal experts i ve talked to from both parties, legal scholars, say the answer is probably, yes, he probably
mitt romney is going to be meeting with donald trump on sunday this weekend? that s a big deal. now we are reporting and able to report that he is being considered for secretary of state. for donald trump s secretary of state. to be clear. former massachusetts governor mitt romney might get a job out of all of this! it turns out. so never mind about the whole into the abyss thing. woof. sit. sit. sit. soft mouth. today was the day when the last vestige of republican, honorable, principled horror at donald trump dissolved into everybody just trying to get a job with him now. forget all that. today we also learned, after days of reporting, that president-elect trump would try to bring his relatives into the white house, despite nepotism laws that ban that. today we learned, apparently, how they plan to try to skirt the nepotism law, at least when it comes to donald trump s son-in-law, a man named jared kushner. the new york times reporting today that what the trump folks are goin
there are reasons, though, that the nepotism laws are in place and reasons that there has been resistance over the last 0, 30 years or since the kennedys, frankly, in place because you don t want the idea that you re doing business or doing government work to enrich your family. the trumps have got to erect some barriers, if they re going to do this. they have to make clear that ivanka s bracelet business isn t going to be benefitted by having jared kushner as part of the security. some of this is new and unprecedented. what you just described of the bracelet and family members and almost impossibility of creating a true, blind trust for the assets of this particular president-elect. that s uncharted territory. that s a whole other category. anybody can google 531 u.s. 10 and look at the nepotism law and it very clearly says it applies to son-in-laws. he cannot be an employee of the president. what if he doesn t take the money? the money isn t the issue.
father-in-laws would pick their son-in-laws to do anything. the bottom line is he s going to need all the advice he can get and if he thinks mr. kushner is an indispensable part of him being president, i m all for it. i don t think it violates any nepotism law. i know people are concerned about that. i know people are concerned about the business dealings of the trump family and how it relates to the presidency. that s all fair game. but when it comes to mr. kushner, i m all for him being able to help president trump in any fashion the president deems appropriate. for a lot of folks who covered the campaign and covered you for a long time, hearing the words i m all for donald trump having whomever he wants around him, i want to help him where i can, it is surprising. we don t need you shouldn t be surprised. we don t need to look too far in the past, you spent a year in the campaign going up against donald trump, ridiculing donald trump. this man we do know, he rewards loyalty.
to the chief of staff for a reason. is on par with the cabinet for a reason. that bannon now is an equal to the chief of staff. there is no structural fit to sort of address that decision by donald trump. and while it is his prerogative, these are not the white house is structurally limited around some of these jobs. we ve talked about how security cleerpss are attached to jobs not people. so there are a lot of red flags raised by the decision he s making. speaking the public is giving him more latitude than they ve given people in the past because they chose an outsider. i think if he wants to have jared kushner serve in the west wing, he s been a valued campaign advisor, he should figure out a way to make that happen. advisor to president kennedy. gave us the nepotism law. exactly. testing, during the cuban president s brother who served