Ivanka to be special assistant to Trump

vanka Trump, the elder daughter of US President Donald Trump, is becoming an official government employee. She is joining her husband, Jared Kushner, as an unpaid adviser to her father in the White House, a statement said.

The announcement on Wednesday amounts to the formal recognition of the value Trump places on the judgment and loyalty of both his daughter and his son-in-law, New York Times reported.

While relying on family members for advice is hardly unusual for a President, giving them a formal role has few precedents, the report added.

Ivanka Trump, 35, will be an assistant to the President, while Kushner, 36, has the title of senior adviser.

Ivanka Trump said last week that she planned on serving as an informal adviser to her father, and she already has an office in the West Wing - upstairs from her husband's.

She was also in the process of receiving government-issued security clearance and communications devices. But that plan had prompted criticism from ethics experts, who had said it would allow her to avoid financial disclosure rules, the New York Times report said.

"This arrangement appears designed to allow Ivanka Trump to avoid the ethics, conflict-of-interest and other rules that apply to White House employees," Norman L. Eisen and Richard W. Painter, White House ethics lawyers for Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively, wrote in a letter to Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel.

They had argued that Ivanka Trump's use of those resources had made her a federal employee in all but name, and they had called on the administration to officially acknowledge her as a staff member.

"I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees," Ivanka Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role," she said.

Casey Anthony’s Dad Reacts to Her New Interview About Murder Acquittal: My ‘Heart Hurts Even More Now’

Casey Anthony‘s parents say they are “hurt” by a new interview she gave this week, nearly six years after she was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

In a statement to PEOPLE on Tuesday, via their attorney, Cindy and George Anthony said their daughter was dragging them back to a tragic period in their lives from which they had tried to “move forward” — specifically George.

“After years of silence, Casey Anthony has decided to complete an interview and has once again pointed to George Anthony, her father, as a suspect in the disappearance and death of his granddaughter, Caylee,” Casey’s parents said in their statement.

“George, who has continued to try and move forward from this tragedy and who was vindicated on multiple occasions, is once again forced to relive the hints, rumors, lies and allegations that are being made by Casey Anthony,” the statement continued. “He has specifically stated that ‘his heart hurts even more now.’ ”


Casey’s relationship with her family is tumultuous. During her murder trial, her attorneys accused George of molesting her beginning when she was 8 years old — which he angrily denied on the stand. Casey’s defense team also claimed George helped cover-up Caylee’ death after she accidentally drowned, a theory both George and prosecutors dismissed.

George has never been charged in connection with Caylee’s death.

Casey broke her silence with an Associated Press interview, published Tuesday, in which she addressed her daughter’s death for the first time since her acquittal.

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Casey was not quoted in the AP’s story accusing her father of anything, but she appeared to tie him to the case while defending herself.

“Cops believe other cops,” she told the AP. “Cops tend to victimize the victims. … Cops lie to people every day. I’m just one of the unfortunate idiots who admitted they lied.

“My dad was a cop, you can read into that what you want to.”

The AP asked Casey about her attorneys’ previous claim that Caylee drowned.

“Everyone has their theories, I don’t know,” she said. Then she added, obliquely, “The last time I saw my daughter, I believed she was alive and was going to be okay, and that’s what was told to me.”

• Pick up PEOPLE’s special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenét Ramsey and more.

While the Anthony family briefly reconciled after her acquittal, the relationship soon fractured again. According to several sources, Casey has not spoken to her family in more than a year.

In 2012, when Casey was living at a church in South Florida, she spoke with her mother frequently — but as time went on, those conversations became less and less frequent.

“This family has had struggles for a very long time, and all of them have processed it in their own way,” a source close to the situation tells PEOPLE. “There is a lot of regret, I think, on both sides. I know that George and Cindy have been devastated to lose their daughter in the way that they have. They hope for a reconciliation someday.”