Dem Lawyer Jamie Gorelick Navigates Ethics Waters For Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner

Jamie Gorelick As Ivanka & Jared's Lawyer

Jamie Gorelick, a veteran of President Bill Clinton's Justice Department and a Hillary Clinton supporter, tells Politico why she's working for Trump's daughter now. "I don't pass my clients through a 100 percent values alignment litmus test," Gorelick explains.

The woman who was widely believed to be Hillary Clinton's top choice for US Attorney General was recommended to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump by former News Corp. executive Joel Klein, who now serves as chief strategy officer at Oscar. The health insurance company was co-founded by Josh Kushner, Jared's younger brother, a proud progressive and Karlie Kloss' boyfriend.

Ethics conflicts abound in Jared and Ivanka world, and Gorelick is receiving an earful from Clintonworld. Politico writes that Gorelick is shocked by the intensity of the vitriol heaped on her reputation for lending legitimacy to the couple. 

“The swirl of money and conflicts is unprecedented and their arrangements are not curing it," said Robert Weissman, president of the nonprofit Public Citizen. “That Ivanka Trump has branded her company with her name is a complicating factor, and it should be, for her, not for the American people. Looking at [Gorelick’s] comments saying it doesn’t work for Ivanka to sell off the company — well, then maybe it doesn’t work for her to be in government.”

A sample of woman on woman annoyance over Gorelick's decision to represent Jared and Ivanka comes from top Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen, another former Clinton surrogate and a partner at SKDKnickerbocker:

“Hey Jamie Gorelick, you’ve just poured that ‘Complicit’ perfume on yourself. #Ivanka,” Rosen tweeted, in reference to a “Saturday Night Live” sketch about an Ivanka Trump-branded scent called “Complicit.”

Ivanka In The West Wing

Government watchdogs want the Trump White House to give daughter Ivanka an official title beyond "informal adviser", now that she has an office in the West Wing. The Trump administration continuously drives the message that the presidency is exempt from extensive ethics rules.

Initially Ivanka Trump insisted that she would have no formal role in her father's administration. Now she has secured an office next to senior adviser Dina Powell, recently appointed to a position on the National Security Council. Ivanka is applying for a security clearance and government-issued communication devices. 

Trump’s role, according to her attorney Jamie Gorelick, will be to serve as the president’s “eyes and ears” while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women’s empowerment issues. We were shocked last week when Ivanka Trump was seated next to Angela Merkel for the German chancellor’s first official visit to Trump’s White House. There is nothing in her background that warrants such a prestigious seating assignment, one we regard as a sign of disrespect to Merkel.

Ivanka Trump has no idea what all the fuss is about concerning her role in the Trump administration. "I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life,” Trump said in a statement. “While there is no modern precedent for an adult child of the president, I will voluntarily follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees."

White House counsel Don McGahn could be attempting to give her a loophole if she improperly mingles her government policy roles with her business and financial interests, writes The Washington Post.

"On the one hand, her position will provide her with the privilege and opportunities for service that attach to being a White House employee. On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to all White House employees," say critics of Ivanka's role. 

As for being her father's eyes and ears, both Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner were MIA in Washington this week, as Big Daddy suffered his first major defeat with the debacle surrounding Republican efforts to overturn Obamacare in the US House of Representatives. 

The Young Tycoons Play In Aspen

This family saga is definitely taking on a "let them eat cake" attitude as American taxpayers foot the bill for over 100 Secret Service agents in Aspen, coinciding with the FBI announcement of their investigation into the Trump administration's ties to Russia. 

Meanwhile, those same taxpayers who are footing the bill for the 100 Secret Service folks -- PLEASE tell us that taxpayers didn't pay to fly this family to Aspen on Air Force One -- find their ski vacations totally ruined, writes Vanity Fair and the Aspen Times.

The Independent UK reports that taxpayers forked over $12,208 on rental ski equipment for Secret Service agents covering Trump family members on the slopes.

The Trump Monarchy

Wherever the Trump family monarchy goes, they shut out the fun for everybody else, because -- after all -- they are SOOOOOOO SPECIAL. Trump & Kushner neighbors in Washington's Kalorama are furious with the couple, saying that their requirement of three oversized vans of security staff just for a trip to the playground has eaten up the already very limited parking spaces in the neighborhood. 

“It has been a three-ring circus from the day that they’ve moved in,” Marietta Robinson, who lives across the street, said.

Fellow residents claimed the security presence for the couple, who have three children, was oddly large and even aggressive. Ms Robinson said Ms Trump, who is said to the president’s “favorite” child, arrives and leaves the $5.5 million house in a four-vehicle motorcade.

Kalorama residents are accustomed to security issues. The Obamas live close-by and apparently create far fewer problems. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also live in Kalorama. FOX News anchor Chris Wallace is among the residents who have complained about the Trump-Kushner invasion and its impact on quality of life in Kalorama.

“There are more of them than I have ever seen,” Ms Robinson wrote in a letter to Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and other city officials. “Frequently several of them are milling outside of the house at all hours having conversations and staring meanly at anyone in view.”

Residents also say that the Trump-Kushner family leaves garbage bags on the side of the road for days.

Secret Service asked for $60 million extra for Trump-era travel and protection

The White House has reportedly vetoed a detailed request for additional Secret Service funding to address the rapidly escalating costs of protecting the vagabond lifestyle travels of the Trump family.  The Washington Post detailed the request at a time when Trump's budget is gunning for Sesame Street's Big Bird and a host of other budget items the White House considers to be unnecessary and expendable -- and that includes a show that is an educational lifeline for America's poor children.  In Trumpland, the response is "let them eat cake"! 

Vanity Fair details not only the Secret Service budget breakdown but the enormous expenses being accrued by New York City, where Melania Trump resides with son Barron and also Palm Beach, home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago. 

The tone deafness of this family is BLINDING!!!! They need to be living in the Roaring '20s, in the years before the collapse of America and the Great Depression. Discretion is not this family's middle name. They are the center of their own universe -- rich tycoons of the worst kind. And they are living off our hard-earned money. ~ Anne