The Justice Department has released several legal memos issued to White Houses run by former Presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Obama, that found it is unlawful for presidents to appoint family members to White House positions or commissions.

But the dictates of the memos were overruled in January by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel Koffsky, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who concluded that a 1978 law gave the president broad authority to hire for White House positions.

Koffsky’s effort, therefore, empowered President Trump to appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to become a senior adviser at the White House, and thereafter first daughter Ivanka Trump also as a senior adviser, but in an unpaid capacity.

According to the documents which have been held for decades by Justice Department lawyers, a 1967 anti-nepotism law barred the president from appointing family members to White House positions.

The provision of the memo was evident during the Obama regime when an opinion was issued to the White House in 2009 and forbade the former president from appointing his half-sister to a White House fellowships commission and his brother-in-law to a fitness commission.

The legal memos were obtained and disclosed by Politico through a request provided by the Freedom of Information Act.