Conway may have broken key ethics rule by touting Ivanka Trump’s products, experts say
Conway may have broken key ethics rule by touting Ivanka Trump’s products, experts say
The Washington Post
Drew Harwell, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman
President Trump’s official counselor, Kellyanne Conway, may have broken a key ethics rule Thursday morning when she told TV audiences to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
Federal employees are banned from using their public office to endorse products, regulations state.
Conway, speaking to “Fox & Friends” viewers from the White House briefing room, was responding to boycotts of Ivanka Trump merchandise and Nordstrom’s discontinuation of stocking her clothing and shoe lines, which the retailer said was in response to low sales and which the president assailed as unfair.
“I’m going to give it a free commercial here,” Conway said of the president’s daughter’s merchandise brand. “Go buy it today.”
Conway and officials from the White House and the Office of Government Ethics did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.