On Thursday, President Trump announced that he is naming his son-in-law Jared Kushner a special peace envoy, formalizing the ad hoc role he has been playing in the administration thus far and triggering ethics requirements necessary for the public trust. With his pending appointment, Kushner will likely be required to file a financial disclosure report outlining his recent and current financial interests for review by ethics officials to identify conflicts of interest that could arise from his newly acknowledged role. Following the announcement, CREW President Donald K. Sherman released the following statement:

“At this moment, the public has no reason to trust Jared Kushner’s integrity as a government official to put their interests above his financial benefit. After making hundreds of millions of dollars while serving as a special advisor in the first Trump administration, Kushner wasted no time leveraging his government job for personal gain, securing billions of dollars for his investment firm from the very governments he worked closely with in his official capacity. Despite claims he would not return to public service, Kushner has spent the past several months serving as a Trump administration negotiator with foreign countries including Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Israel. 

From what we know about his involvement so far and the high-profile role he will be continuing, the Senate should provide its advice and consent to his appointment from the start, but at the very least should be notified of the details of his duties and potential conflicts of interest, pursuant to federal law for special envoys. Given his company’s public dealings and investments in the very countries and conflicts that he will apparently be working on directly, Kushner should also proactively divest from his firm, Affinity Partners. He should be required to be approved for a security clearance—without special treatment this time.

If there is a silver lining to President Trump’s announcement, it is that Kushner will finally be subject to some ethics rules, instead of acting as a completely unchecked private citizen. Kushner’s appointment means that he must be vigilant about ensuring that his unique access to the president does not result again in using his position to engage in lucrative private deals with foreign countries. Likewise, his appointment means he will be subject to various cooling off periods that must be vigilantly enforced when he decides to return to the private sector.   

Working in public service is a choice. With that choice comes the responsibility to go above and beyond to assure the public that they are not only following the law, but acting exclusively in the public interest. Given Kushner’s history of self-enrichment, the scope of his foreign investments and the magnitude of the role Trump has granted him, the bar is even higher. We’ll be watching to ensure he meets the mark. American economic and national security interests demand nothing less.”