Justice Department: Jared Kushner cleared to serve as White House adviser

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has decided that President Donald Trump can hire his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior White House adviser without breaking federal anti-nepotism laws, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The department has found that the president has special hiring authority that exempts White House positions from federal laws barring the president from appointing relatives to lead a federal agency, the newspaper reported, citing an opinion from the department's Office of Legal Counsel dated Jan. 20.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, G Crosse)

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