Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s top aides are resigning from the department amid an inspector general’s probe into their alleged mistreatment of staff and misuse of taxpayer dollars for personal travel with the Cabinet official, sources told The Post.
Chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy Rebecca Wright were offered the choice of resigning or being fired by the White House Monday night, roughly two months after department watchdog Anthony D’Esposito launched an investigation into the senior aides.
People familiar with the probe indicated that investigators had gathered sufficient evidence of a “toxic” work environment created by the pair, including verbal abuse of staffers and waste of departmental resources on personal travel.
Jihun Han has resigned from his position in the Department of Labor. U.S. Department of Labor
Deputy Chief of Staff Rebecca Wright resigned from her position. U.S. Department of Labor
Wright had also enraged the White House by taking a swipe at President Trump last year, the sources added, telling staff in a meeting: “We don’t care what the White House tells us to do. We only care that the secretary looks good.”
A complaint filed with D’Esposito’s office — first reported by The Post in January — accused Chavez-DeRemer, 57, of having Han and Wright “make up” official trips, seeking out conferences or speaking engagements at destinations where the secretary could also visit family members or travel for pleasure.
The labor secretary also faced allegations of drinking in her office during the workday, enabling a “hostile” workplace — with Han and Wright belittling and bullying staffers — and pursuing an “inappropriate” relationship with a member of her security detail.
Chavez-DeRemer’s personal attorney Nick Oberheiden has said the secretary “firmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing.”
Han, Wright and the security guard were all placed on administrative leave in January, sources noted, and additional complaints have been submitted since then against the secretary’s aides accusing them of interfering with the IG probe and exerting improper influence over junior staff.
Han and Wright were said to have provided “cover” for the secretary’s alleged misconduct, sources said, with Han having leaned on staffers to silence questions about Chavez-DeRemer’s rumored affair in late 2025 by instructing them to “leave it alone,” according to sources and the complaint.
The IG’s sprawling probe into Chavez-DeRemer has included dozens of interviews and uncovered evidence that she kept a “stash” of alcohol in her office and took subordinates to an Oregon strip club while on an official trip in April 2025. Han and Wright had not yet been questioned by investigators at the time of their departure.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer (yellow bikini) in Las Vegas. New York Post
The complaint’s accusations of misuse of taxpayer-funded travel have also been corroborated. In December, the secretary and Wright attended an America First Policy Institute event in Palm Beach, Fla., and ethics officials warned both had to pay their own way for some of the trip, according to the IG complaint.
Chavez-DeRemer and Wright ignored this by scheduling an “official” dinner with “just the two of them,” the complaint stated — an allegation that the labor watchdog confirmed, insiders previously said.
The five-day trip listed just one speaking engagement at a luncheon on the secretary’s schedule.
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In other instances, staff were told to bump items from Chavez-DeRemer’s calendar that ethics lawyers might not approve of — and list the trips on her personal schedule instead.
The secretary’s anesthesiologist husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, was also pulled into the scandal after a police report was filed in Washington, DC, alleging sexual misconduct at department headquarters.
A Jan. 24 report to the Metropolitan Police Department from a female DOL staffer cited “sexual contact against her will” — a misdemeanor — but the feds declined to pursue charges and the case was closed.
Secretary of Labor Chavez-DeRemer came under fire over her inappropriate relationship with her staff. Getty Images
That woman and another department employee first alleged the inappropriate physical contact during the IG’s investigation.
The matter was initially referred to the Federal Protective Service to investigate a potential crime committed inside a government building.
DeRemer was barred from the Labor Department’s main building following the allegation. His attorney James Bell said that his client “categorically, unequivocally, and emphatically denies each and every one of the allegations.”
The White House has said it stands by the labor secretary amid the investigation, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Jan. 15 that President Trump is “aware of the internal investigation” and “thinks that she’s doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) launched his own probe in February, saying in a letter to Chavez-DeRemer that the allegations “if true, represent a serious breach of the public’s trust.”
Oberheiden said his client was also “fully cooperating” with the senator’s request.
Neither Han nor Wright immediately responded to requests for comment. Reps for DOL, the White House and D’Esposito’s office also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.