Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down Monday after a months-long Inspector General investigation into allegations that she ordered staffers to bring alcohol on work trips, used taxpayer money for personal travel, and presided over a department where her husband allegedly made unwanted advances on young female employees. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung confirmed the resignation, saying Chavez-DeRemer had "done a phenomenal job."

She hadn't. Or if she had, the job apparently included keeping bourbon, Kahlua, and champagne in her Washington, D.C., office, allegedly taking subordinates to a strip club in Oregon, and looking the other way while her husband texted young female Labor Department staffers, conduct that drew a police report, an Inspector General probe, and the quiet exit of at least four other department employees.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third cabinet official to leave the Trump administration this year, following Kristi Noem's departure from the Department of Homeland Security in early March and Pam Bondi's ouster as Attorney General earlier this month. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling will serve as acting secretary.

The complaint and what it alleged

The New York Post first reported the original complaint to the Inspector General in January. The complaint accused the 58-year-old Chavez-DeRemer of asking a staffer to bring rosé to her hotel room and of keeping a personal liquor stash in her office at the Department of Labor headquarters.

Text messages cited in the complaint filled in the details. In one exchange from a hotel bar menu photo taken during an official visit to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last July, Chavez-DeRemer allegedly texted, "Do they sell by the bottle," followed by, "How about the josh sauvi B."

On September 5, her then-deputy chief of staff, Rebecca Wright, texted a staffer to grab "a bottle or 2" of wine or champagne, adding: "Lori wants to do a toast when this meeting is over."

None of this is how a federal department is supposed to run. Taxpayers fund official travel so cabinet secretaries can conduct the public's business, not so they can toast themselves with sauvignon blanc on the government's dime.

The Oregon trip and the strip club

The allegations grew worse. The New York Post reported that Chavez-DeRemer took subordinates to Angels PDX, a strip club in Oregon, on April 18, 2025, at the end of a five-day visit to the state. The trip had included official business, a meeting with Democratic Governor Tina Kotek and a tour of an Intel chip facility, but documents reviewed by the Post showed $2,890.06 in taxpayer money was spent on the Oregon trip overall.

The administration has made rooting out waste and fraud a centerpiece of its agenda, with Vice President Vance tapped as a fraud czar to chase down misuse of public dollars. A cabinet secretary allegedly padding official travel with personal side trips and late-night club outings undercuts that message in the most direct way possible.

The Washington Examiner reported that the Inspector General investigation also examined allegations of "travel fraud", specifically, that Chavez-DeRemer ordered staff to invent official trips so she could visit friends and family at taxpayer expense. Sources told the Examiner that the scandals had caused friction inside the Trump administration, even though the White House had generally been satisfied with her policy work.

Her husband's conduct at Labor Department headquarters

The probe extended well beyond Chavez-DeRemer herself. Her husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Shawn DeRemer, came under Inspector General review over texts he sent to young female Department of Labor staffers. Multiple women told investigators he had made unwanted advances toward them.

Security video showed him "giving one of the women an extended embrace" inside the department's headquarters. One woman went further: she told DC's Metropolitan Police Department that she was sexually assaulted inside the building on December 18. A police report obtained by the Daily Mail documented the allegation.

The department and the federal prosecutor's office later said they would not bring charges over that allegation. But the damage was done. Dr. DeRemer was barred from the department headquarters earlier this year, an extraordinary step for the spouse of a sitting cabinet secretary.

This pattern of conduct, a secretary's husband allegedly harassing her own employees inside a federal building, raises basic questions about accountability that no amount of policy achievement can paper over. The administration has dealt with cabinet shake-up pressures before, but this situation involved potential criminal conduct inside a department headquarters.

The security guard and the resignations

A separate thread of the investigation involved Brian Sloan, a security guard who was accused of a romantic relationship with the married secretary. Politico, citing two department officials, reported that Sloan stepped down last month. He had previously been placed on leave amid the Office of Inspector General's probe.

Four other Labor Department staffers also resigned during the investigation, the New York Post reported. The scope of departures suggests the probe reached deep into the department's daily operations, not just the secretary's front office.

The administration has shown a willingness to force difficult personnel changes when circumstances demand it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed out the Army's top general amid leadership tensions, and other senior officials have faced scrutiny over their conduct in office. But the Chavez-DeRemer situation stands apart because the allegations involve personal misconduct, not policy disagreements.

The official exit and what comes next

Cheung framed the departure as a move to the private sector. Chavez-DeRemer's personal attorney, Nick Oberheiden, offered a more careful statement:

"While she continues to strongly dispute the allegations that have been raised, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer believes it is in the best interest of the country to allow the administration to remain fully focused on delivering results for the American people."

Oberheiden added that she "is grateful for the opportunity to serve and remains committed to supporting the President's agenda moving forward." The language is familiar, the standard Washington formula for a departure that is neither fully voluntary nor fully forced.

The resignation came the same week the Pentagon announced that Navy Secretary John Phelan was also departing the administration effective immediately. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell did not provide a reason for Phelan's exit. Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as acting secretary of the Navy in the interim. Combined with the earlier departures of Noem and Bondi, the string of high-level exits has tested the administration's ability to maintain continuity across the executive branch.

Internal administration turmoil is nothing new. Reports of near-removals and last-minute interventions have surfaced before. But the Chavez-DeRemer case is different in kind. This wasn't a policy dispute or a turf war. The allegations describe a cabinet secretary who allegedly treated her department like a personal fiefdom, ordering staff to fetch wine, tolerating her husband's presence around young female employees, and billing taxpayers for trips that served her own convenience.

What the probe still hasn't answered

Several questions remain open. The specific ethics rules or policies under investigation have not been publicly identified. The exact disposition of the sexual assault allegation, beyond the decision not to bring charges, remains unclear. The Inspector General's probe has not produced a public final report, and it is unknown whether one is forthcoming.

It is also unclear what, if any, accountability will follow for Dr. Shawn DeRemer. He was barred from the building, but the women who reported his conduct deserve to know whether the investigation reached a formal conclusion about his actions, not just a quiet ban from the premises.

Conservatives who demand accountability from government officials cannot make exceptions when the official in question served on their team. The standard is the standard. A Labor Secretary who allegedly drank on the job, let her husband roam the halls texting young staffers, and billed taxpayers for personal travel is not someone who upheld the public trust, regardless of how many policy boxes she checked.

If the administration means what it says about draining the swamp, the water has to drain from every corner, including the ones where your own appointees are standing.