Kellyanne Conway is 'counseled' for plugging Ivanka Trump's product line from the White House

Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to President Trump, has been “counseled” for making a sales pitch for Ivanka Trump’s product line during a television interview conducted from the White House briefing room.

The endorsement Thursday morning by Conway raised ethical and legal questions, giving the appearance that she was using the White House to further the Trump family’s commercial interests.

“Kellyanne has been counseled and that’s all we’re going to go into,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday afternoon. “She’s been counseled on that subject.”

Spicer would not say whether that amounted to discipline.

President Trump has been in a public battle with Nordstrom, which dropped Ivanka Trump’s product line amid slumping sales.

Ethics lawyers have raised numerous concerns about Trump’s ties to his businesses, which remain under family control and often bear his name, as well as those controlled by other members of his family. But the latest flap has the potential to arouse broader public concern because it involves a well-known retailer.

"Go buy Ivanka’s stuff," Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager and continues to have a central role in advising the president and appearing on his behalf, said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

President Trump criticized Nordstrom Inc. on Wednesday, tweeting that the department store chain that decided to stop selling his daughter Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line has treated her “so unfairly.”

Although he has tweeted in the past about companies such as Boeing, Carrier and…

“It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it,” she added. “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”

Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican who chairs the committee, requesting a referral to the Office of Government Ethics for possible disciplinary action.

“This appears to be a textbook violation of government ethics laws and regulations enacted to prevent the abuse of an employee’s government position,” Cummings wrote. “… I request that the committee make an official referral of this matter to the Office of Government Ethics and request that it report back to the committee as soon as possible with its findings.”

Chaffetz told the Associated Press that the comments were “wrong, wrong, wrong, clearly over the line, unacceptable.”

He said he would write a joint letter to the Office of Government Ethics on the subject and another to President Trump, because the White House would need to request the review.

The ethics office said on Twitter that its “website, phone system and email system are receiving an extraordinary volume of contacts from citizens about recent events.”

The office went on to say that it does not have investigative or enforcement authority, but officials there can contact and provide guidance to other enforcement agencies and are “actively following this agency-contact process.”

The top Senate Democrat on Thursday called for President Trump to withdraw the nomination of fast-food executive Andy Puzder to be Labor secretary, calling him “probably the most anti-worker” choice ever for the cabinet position.

Democrats and workers rights groups have been sharply critical of…

The White House is largely responsible for policing itself to keep from using the public office for private gain, ethics attorneys said. And they are dubious of its ability to do so, given that Trump himself started the dispute, complaining on Twitter on Wednesday that “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly” by Nordstrom. Trump has more than 24 million followers, in addition to the prestige of the presidency, behind his attack on the retailer.

“Given that this all started with the president attacking Nordstrom … I’m not sure I trust them to counsel her directly,” said Larry Noble, general counsel to the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government reform group.

Noble said it’s more than a simple “slip of the tongue” by a single member of the administration, given that Spicer also weighed in on the issue during his Wednesday briefing. He accused Nordstrom of “a direct attack on his policies and her name” by dropping the product line. He said it sends a message to companies that if they decline to do business with Trump family entities, they face potential retribution.

“All of them they should be staying out of this,” said Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House who serves on the board of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a watchdog group that has file lawsuits accusing the Trump administration of ethics violations.

“Instead of getting the president to cool it off on Twitter, they’re all joining.”

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noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

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UPDATES:

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from ethics experts.

12:25 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

11:35 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

This article was originally published at 9:45 a.m.

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