It says the possible conflict can be set aside if the employee's supervisor judges that the relationship does not affect the official's impartiality or create the public perception of a conflict.
This kind of safeguard is particularly important for elected local officials whose impartiality is crucial, like judges, sheriffs and prosecutors.
A former senior intelligence official has questioned the impartiality of the committee scrutinising Britain's security services.
During the debate over Scottish independence, Irish officials maintained a studied impartiality.
Democracy is still a low-tech, old-economy business: ballots are marked by hand -- with crosses or stamps or fingerprints -- and then counted by hand, with an assortment of officials supposed to guarantee impartiality looking on.
Just weeks after Mr. Putin's election last March, a Russian official smeared the council's impartiality, citing charitable donations Yukos made over a decade ago to nongovernmental organizations whose leaders now sit on the council.
Some critics say the trips could cast doubt on the impartiality of the officials' buying decisions, which shape the way millions of students learn.
In interviews today, several senior Justice Department officials defended Mr. Conrad's impartiality and said there was no basis to believe that his legal judgments were politically motivated.
Mr. Anwar said he doubted his case would be treated with impartiality because senior officials in the police force and attorney general's office are "very scared of any change of leadership".
But Democratic officials today questioned Mr. Conrad's impartiality, noting that he had contributed $250 in 1996 to the re-election campaign of Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a staunch conservative Republican and a consistent foe of the Clinton administration.
