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.









