{"id":151360,"date":"2026-03-03T18:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151360\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T18:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:41:17","slug":"top-aides-to-under-fire-labor-secretary-lori-chavez-deremer-resign-amid-watchdog-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151360\/","title":{"rendered":"Top aides to under-fire Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resign amid watchdog probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer\u2019s top aides<\/a> are resigning from the department amid an inspector general\u2019s probe into their alleged mistreatment of staff and misuse of taxpayer dollars for personal travel with the Cabinet official, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Esposito launched an investigation into the senior aides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People familiar with the probe indicated that investigators had gathered sufficient evidence of a \u201ctoxic\u201d work environment created by the pair, including verbal abuse of staffers and waste of departmental resources on personal travel.<\/p>\n

Jihun Han has resigned from his position in the Department of Labor. U.S. Department of Labor<\/p>\n

Deputy Chief of Staff Rebecca Wright resigned from her position. U.S. Department of Labor<\/p>\n

Wright had also enraged the White House by taking a swipe at President Trump last year, the sources added, telling staff in a meeting: \u201cWe don\u2019t care what the White House tells us to do. We only care that the secretary looks good.\u201d<\/p>\n

A complaint filed with D\u2019Esposito\u2019s office \u2014\u00a0first reported by The Post<\/a>\u00a0in January \u2014\u00a0accused Chavez-DeRemer, 57, of having Han and Wright \u201cmake up\u201d official trips, seeking out conferences or speaking engagements at destinations where the secretary could also visit family members or travel for pleasure.<\/p>\n

The labor secretary also faced allegations<\/a> of drinking in her office during the workday, enabling a \u201chostile\u201d workplace \u2014 with Han and Wright belittling and bullying staffers \u2014 and pursuing an \u201cinappropriate\u201d relationship with a member of her security detail.<\/p>\n

Chavez-DeRemer\u2019s personal attorney Nick Oberheiden has said the secretary\u00a0\u201cfirmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s aides accusing them of interfering with the IG probe and exerting improper influence over junior staff.<\/p>\n

Han and Wright<\/a>\u00a0were said to have provided \u201ccover\u201d for the secretary\u2019s alleged misconduct, sources said, with Han having leaned on staffers to silence questions about Chavez-DeRemer\u2019s rumored affair in late 2025 by instructing them to \u201cleave it alone,\u201d according to sources and the complaint.<\/p>\n

The IG\u2019s sprawling probe into Chavez-DeRemer has included dozens of interviews\u00a0and uncovered evidence that she kept a \u201cstash\u201d of alcohol in her office and\u00a0took subordinates to an Oregon strip club<\/a>\u00a0while on an official trip in April 2025.\u00a0Han and Wright had not yet been questioned by investigators at the time of their departure.<\/p>\n

Lori Chavez-DeRemer (yellow bikini) in Las Vegas. New York Post<\/p>\n

The complaint\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Chavez-DeRemer<\/a>\u00a0and Wright ignored this by scheduling an \u201cofficial\u201d dinner with \u201cjust the two of them,\u201d the complaint stated \u2014 an allegation that the labor watchdog confirmed, insiders previously said.<\/p>\n

The five-day trip listed just one speaking engagement at a luncheon on the secretary\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

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In other instances, staff were told to bump items from Chavez-DeRemer\u2019s calendar that ethics lawyers might not approve of \u2014 and list the trips on her personal schedule instead.<\/p>\n

The secretary\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Jan. 24 report to the Metropolitan Police Department from a female DOL staffer cited \u201csexual contact against her will\u201d \u2014 a misdemeanor \u2014 but the\u00a0feds\u00a0declined to pursue charges<\/a>\u00a0and the case was closed.<\/p>\n

Secretary of Labor Chavez-DeRemer came under fire over her inappropriate relationship with her staff. Getty Images<\/p>\n

That woman and another department employee first alleged the inappropriate physical contact during the IG\u2019s investigation. <\/p>\n

The matter was initially referred to the Federal Protective Service to\u00a0investigate a potential crime committed inside a government building.<\/p>\n

DeRemer was barred from the Labor Department\u2019s main building following the allegation.\u00a0His attorney James Bell said that his client \u201ccategorically, unequivocally, and emphatically denies each and every one of the allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has said it stands by the labor secretary amid the investigation, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying\u00a0Jan. 15 that\u00a0President Trump is \u201caware of the internal investigation\u201d and \u201cthinks that she\u2019s doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)\u00a0launched his own probe<\/a>\u00a0in February, saying in a letter to Chavez-DeRemer that the allegations\u00a0\u201cif true, represent a serious breach of the public\u2019s trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oberheiden said his client was also\u00a0\u201cfully cooperating\u201d with the senator\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

Neither Han nor Wright immediately responded to requests for comment. Reps for DOL, the White House and D\u2019Esposito\u2019s office also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer\u2019s top aides are resigning from the department amid an inspector general\u2019s probe into their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9829,38343,44556,44557,68,35398,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":["post-151360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-affairs","tag-department-of-labor","tag-ethics-complaint","tag-ethics-probe","tag-exclusive","tag-firing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}