Ivanka Trump To Become Official Govt. Employee Amid Ethics Concerns

Ivanka Trump announced Wednesday that she will become an official government employee amid ethics concerns about her current role advising her father in an unofficial capacity.

Trump will take an unpaid position as assistant to the President, according to the New York Times, who first reported the news.

“I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the president in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules,” Trump said in a statement obtained by the New York Times. “I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees.”

Trump said that she has “been working closely and in good faith” with personal and White House lawyers to handle her “unprecedented” role.

Jamie S. Gorelick, Trump’s lawyer and ethics advisor, told the New York Times that Trump will “file the financial disclosure forms required of federal employees and be bound by the same ethics rules that she had planned to comply with voluntarily.”

White House spokeswoman Kelly Love told TPM in an email that the White House is “pleased” by Trump’s decision.

Trump announced last week that she plans to work out of an office in the West Wing, but she said at the time that she would not take an official role in her father’s administration.

A White House official nevertheless told CNN that the President planned to request a security clearance and government-owned devices for Trump.

In a statement, Trump said that she would voluntary comply with ethics rules, though without an official position she would not be bound by those regulations.