Kellyanne Conway Likely Broke The Law By Promoting Ivanka’s Clothing Line From White House

Kellyanne Conway is facing major questions after she decided to promote Ivanka Trump’s clothing line from the White House – potentially breaking the law.

On an interview with Fox News, Conway said to the audience, “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff!” Conway was appearing from the White House briefing room and continued, “This is just a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”

Here is a video clip of the comments:

Conway coming under fire by former top Obama officials

Former top rank Obama officials are pointing out that what Kellyanne Conway did likely broke the law.

Chris Lu, who is the former Deputy Secretary of Labor under President Obama said Thursday via Twitter that he believes Conway is in violation of the law and posted a screenshot of the federal ethics law he believes Conway was breaking.

“This is the federal ethics law that @KellyannePolls just violated,” Lu tweeted, tagging the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Lu highlighted the relevant portion of the law which says: “An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives.”

And Norm Eisen the former ethics czar under President Obama said in an interview with MSNBC that he believes the law forbids what Conway just did, pointing to section §2635.702, which forbids “use of public office for private gain.”

“By doing this ad — I have never seen anything like it — it’s a violation of the rules, pure and simple,” Eisen said. “I imagine that you are going to see complaints flowing in. The responsibility to oversee this in the first instance is with the White House counsel, Don McGahn. He’s going to need to look at the rules, look at the precedents and decide what range of penalties might apply.”

He went on to say, “And I think the Office of Government Ethics will also have a look at it. So, it’s a serious matter.”

Washington Post report suggests Conway violated ethics rule

The Washington Post is reporting that Conway’s statements may have broken the law, saying:

Attorneys, including Campaign Legal Center general counsel Lawrence Noble, said Conway’s endorsement directly conflicted with OGE rules designed to separate government policy from private business dealings.

“I don’t see what their defense is,” said Noble, who is also former counsel for the Federal Election Commission.

“She did this on television. She was very clear it was advertising. Hopefully at the very least they will acknowledge this is wrong.”

Don W. Fox, former general counsel and former acting director of OGE, told The Washington Post that “Conway’s encouragement to buy Ivanka’s stuff would seem to be a clear violation of rules prohibiting misuse of public office for anyone’s private gain.”

He added: “This is jaw-dropping to me. This rule has been promulgated by the federal Office of Government Ethics as part of the Standards of Conduct for all executive branch employees and it applies to all members of the armed forces as well.”