Top Trump aide broke rules for federal employees in giving ‘free advertising’ during interview for fashion line dropped by Nordstrom, ethics lawyers said

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Kellyanne Conway has been rebuked by the White House after she appeared on television urging the public to buy the branded products of the president’s daughter Ivanka.

Asked about the remarks, for which she was heavily criticized by ethics experts, White House press spokesman Sean Spicer said: “She has been counselled on that subject, and that’s it.”



It was a clear admission that Conway, whose role is counsellor to Donald Trump, had overstepped the ethical boundary between the public and private roles of the Trump family – and a rare one for a White House that has been frequently criticized for its ethical standards.

Ethics experts called her remarks a violation of federal ethics laws “on several levels”, and criticized her for providing “free advertising” to Ivanka Trump’s fashion line.

Conway weighed in on Thursday morning on the Fox & Friends TV show in support of Ivanka Trump’s line of shoes, handbags, apparel and other accessories after department store Nordstrom decided to drop her brand.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would say. I hate shopping – I’m going to buy stuff today,” Conway, Trump’s top White House counselor, said.

Later in the show, she went further, acknowledging as she did so that she was essentially giving Trump’s products an unsolicited promotional opportunity.

“It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it,” Conway said. “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”

In the first major confrontation between House Republicans and Trump, House oversight committee chairman Jason Chaffetz said Conway’s promotion of Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand was “wrong, wrong, wrong, clearly over the line, unacceptable”.

The Republican congressman said the White House must refer the matter to the office of government ethics for review. He said he and Democratic oversight leader Elijah Cummings are writing a letter to the office and he will also write to Trump. “It needs to be dealt with,” he told the Associated Press. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

In a letter to Chafetz, Cummings had asked him to refer Conway’s actions for review and “potential disciplinary action”.



“This appears to be a textbook violation of government ethics laws,” he wrote, accusing Conway of directly promoting and endorsing the president’s daughter’s private business.

Appearing on Fox News Thursday night, Conway said that the White House was aware of the letter sent by Congressmen Chaffetz and Cummings and “we are reviewing that currently.” She saidthat the President “supports me 100%” and told women watching “at some point in your life you ought to have a boss who treated you the way that the President of the United States treated me.”



Meanwhile the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote to Walter Schaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, and Donald McGahn, White House counsel, calling on them to launch an investigation into Conway’s actions.

“We are concerned about what appears to be a pattern developing of the use of official offices, particularly the White House and the executive office of the president to benefit business interests of relatives and supporters of the president,” their letter read.

Richard Painter, former White House chief ethics lawyer to former president George W Bush, said federal employees were prohibited from using their official position for private gain for “yourself or anybody, including your boss”.

“You do not promote products sold by yourself or your family or the president or his family, it’s not appropriate,” Painter told the Guardian.

He said it was a violation of the standard of conduct of government ethics for a federal employee, including a White House staff member.

“When I worked for President Bush, we were so careful, we went through his speeches or when he visited companies or factories to make sure he was not endorsing any products and the head of the agency – in this case the president or his chief of staff, has to make sure that every employee is following the ethics rules,” he said.

Nordstrom, the Seattle-based chain of luxury department stores founded in 1901, announced last week it was dropping Ivanka Trump’s goods.

It did not made any political comments and attributed the decision to poor sales.

“We’ve said all along we make buying decisions based on performance,” a statement issued at the time said. “We’ve got thousands of brands – more than 2,000 offered on the site alone. Reviewing their merit and making edits is part of the regular rhythm of our business.”

But the move followed a weeks-long boycott campaign organized by an anti-Trump activist group called Grab Your Wallet, which demanded Nordstrom sever its business ties with the Trump family. Three days prior to dropping Ivanka’s brand, Nordstrom also issued an internal statement in support of immigrants following the president’s executive order temporarily banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries. It has maintained that the two were not connected.

But on Wednesday, President Trump took to Twitter, causing controversy when he tweeted criticism of Nordstrom and praised his daughter. Having tweeted from his private account, he then retweeted the message from his official presidential Twitter account.

Then on Thursday, Conway joined the fray.

Larry Noble, general legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, a government reform advocacy, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University law school, said Conway’s remarks were “wrong on several levels”.

“It looks like a pretty clear violation of government ethics rules. She holds an official government post and was appearing on TV in that role, and she was pretty clear about the free advertising of the president’s daughter’s products,” he said.

Noble tweeted as much, citing ethics rule 5 CFR 2635 that bans federal employees from endorsing products.

He said the office of government ethics could decide to reprimand Conway or the Department of Justice could weigh penalties.

“There is no evidence that the administration recognizes the violation and the seriousness of this,” he said.

Painter added that if a federal employee did not comply with the federal ethics standards, it should be enforced by the president or his chief of staff.

“If the president does not, he is not doing his job and the US constitution sets forth procedures for what Congress can do if the president is not doing his job,” he said.

Additional reporting by David Smith