US Labour Secretary steps down amid internal investigation
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LORI Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s embattled labour secretary, stepped down Monday as multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her.
“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” Steven Cheung, a White House spokesperson, posted on social media. He said Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labour, would serve as acting secretary.
Pressure on Chavez-DeRemer had mounted in recent weeks, as investigators and congressional leaders homed in on questions about her conduct in office, and that of her aides and members of her family.
The Labor Department’s inspector general’s office is nearing the end of a months-long investigation into a whistleblower’s allegations of professional misconduct by Chavez-DeRemer and her closest aides.
The claims include that she was having an affair with a member of her security team and used department resources for personal trips. Chavez-DeRemer was expected to be interviewed in the matter in the coming days.
Investigators spoke with several dozen witnesses, and uncovered evidence that Chavez-DeRemer and her staff abused federal spending limits on personal trips, several people familiar with the investigation said, including on fancy hotels, SUV rentals and meals. Four people have left or been forced out of their jobs in connection with the investigation.
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Investigators had also reviewed text messages sent to young staff members by Chavez-DeRemer, her former deputy chief of staff, her husband and her father. The messages, reported last week by The New York Times, suggested that the secretary was drinking during the workday and raised questions about professionalism with her staff.
Nick Oberheiden, a lawyer representing Chavez-DeRemer in the internal investigation, said Monday that she “did not resign because she violated the law; no such finding exists.”
In a post on the social media platform X, Chavez-DeRemer said that she was honoured to have served under the president.
The likelihood that the inspector general’s investigation would reveal embarrassing details was compounded by a parallel inquiry on Capitol Hill. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, demanded internal records and statements from the department in connection with the allegations.
Sonderling, a labour lawyer with a decade of government experience, has been effectively leading the Labor Department during Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, multiple employees told the Times. NYTIMES
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