Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned Monday after a tenure marked by sensational allegations that she had an affair with a security staffer and that her husband sexually assaulted her employees.
“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a post on X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling will serve as acting labor secretary, according to Cheung.
Chavez-DeRemer’s departure makes her the third Senate-confirmed Cabinet official, all of whom have been women, to leave the second Trump administration, after the firings of Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary in early March and Pam Bondi as attorney general in early April.
It is unclear when Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation is effective. NOTUS first reported on her resignation.
The Labor Department and the White House did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
In January, The New York Times reported that Chavez-DeRemer was the subject of an internal misconduct investigation following a complaint that she was having what the outlet called “an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate” and abusing her office. At the time, her lawyer said she could not comment “beyond a general denial.”
Four people were reportedly put on leave as part of the probe. Three of them, including a member of Chavez-DeRemer’s security detail with whom she was rumored to be having an affair, resigned in March, the New York Post and Politico first reported. The fourth person, Melissa Robey, who worked as the director of advance for Chavez-DeRemer, was fired in late March — the day after she sat for a four-hour interview under oath with the department’s inspector general, her spokesperson, Anne Kavanaugh, told MS NOW.
“I did nothing wrong and have nothing to hide,” Robey said in a public statement.
A Labor Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from MS NOW on Robey’s firing.
Chavez-DeRemer’s husband was barred from the department’s headquarters after two women accused him of sexually assaulting them on the premises, a person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to discuss it, told MS NOW. The Times first reported on the situation.
One of those encounters involving Shawn DeRemer was captured on camera, according to the person who spoke to MS NOW on the condition of anonymity.
MS NOW also viewed a copy of a police report filed on Jan. 24 with the Metropolitan Police Department involving a person who reported “sexual contact against her will” at the Labor Department on Dec. 18.
The Washington Post reported in February that the MPD closed that investigation after police found no evidence of a crime, but DeRemer was still barred from the building. James Bell, a lawyer representing DeRemer, told the Post that he was not aware of any ban preventing his client from entering the building.
DeRemer told The Wall Street Journal he “categorically” denied the allegations.
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The Labor Department did not respond to MS NOW’s request for comment regarding those allegations. A lawyer representing Chavez-DeRemer declined to comment to the Times.
MS NOW first reported in April that at least three people also lodged formal complaints against Chavez-DeRemer, alleging that she created a toxic workplace and sought to retaliate against women who reported her husband for sexual misconduct, according to two sources familiar with the allegations. One of the complaints said Chavez-DeRemer also directed staff to perform personal chores for her, including cleaning out one of her clothing closets, according to one of the sources.
Spokespeople for Chavez-DeRemer, her husband and the Labor Department did not respond to requests for comment from MS NOW about those allegations.
Trump’s pick of Chavez-DeRemer for labor secretary came as something of a surprise, given her support for pro-union legislation in the past and the GOP’s general hostility to organized labor. More than a dozen Democrats in the Senate voted to confirm her nomination.
Once in office, she attracted a stream of criticism. She supported the president’s move to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — an agency housed within her department — after a poor jobs report. She also backed what was ultimately an unsuccessful proposal from the White House to eliminate the congressionally mandated Women’s Bureau, which is more than a century old and helped to pass landmark anti-discrimination and equal pay laws. And under her leadership, the department became known for pushing out social media posts that only depicted white male workers, as well as posts historians and other experts said echoed white nationalist rhetoric and Nazi history.
In December, Chavez-DeRemer began hosting monthly prayer services at the department, having been inspired by similar events hosted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as MS NOW reported. Some Labor Department employees and legal experts opposed the event, saying it appeared to violate the establishment clause of the Constitution, which bars the government from giving preference to one form of religion over others.
Both departments are facing lawsuits over the prayer services, brought by a nonprofit organization that advocates the separation of church and state and alleges the government is unlawfully withholding records about the services.
Chavez-DeRemer came to prominence first as the mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon, which is about 15 miles southeast of Portland, then in 2022 as the state’s first Republican woman elected to the House.
She served one term and lost her re-election bid in November 2024 — just a few months before she was confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Akayla Gardner, Mychael Schnell and Ebony Davis contributed reporting.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at CNN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.