Reuters is reporting that the White House is attempting to use ethics rules Trump made up in January of this year to block Special Council Robert Mueller’s investigation from looking into Jared Kushner or Paul Manafort.
Manafort’s deep ties to Russia and importance to the investigation are widely known, but Jared Kushner is also a key target of the investigation. Kushner was also the adviser who suggested the sacking of former FBI director James Comey over the protests of many of Trump’s other staff.
The integrity of the investigation will rest on the granting of a waiver by the Justice Department for Mueller to conduct investigations into former clients from the law firm from which he just resigned. Neither Mueller nor any of the staff he brought with him were involved in the Kushner or Manafort cases in any way.
Incidentally, Donald Trump conveniently extended the rules barring Mueller from investigating without that waiver in January of this year by executive order.