WASHINGTON — A fourth worker has left the Division of Labor after being sidelined amid a sprawling watchdog probe of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer involving alleged journey fraud and different misconduct, The Put up has discovered.
Melissa Robey, who served as director of advance within the secretary’s workplace, was fired on Tuesday on the prompting of the White Home, sources stated, making her the newest DOL aide within the secretary’s workplace to exit through the inspector common’s investigation.
On March 4, Robey was placed on administrative go away following allegations that she misused taxpayer {dollars} for official journey — at some point after Chavez-DeRemer’s high aides resigned from their positions whereas going through related allegations.
Investigators gathered ample proof of the “poisonous” office created by the pair, together with verbal abuse of staffers and waste of departmental sources on private journey, sources famous.
Folks conversant in the probe added that Robey additionally had extreme travel-related expenditures.
The senior aides, chief of employees Jihun Han and deputy Rebecca Wright, have been additionally accused of fostering a “hostile” work setting with Chavez-DeRemer, 57, and committing “journey fraud” by serving to “make up” official journeys to locations the place the secretary might spend private time on the taxpayers’ dime
Moreover, Brian Sloan, a bodyguard on the Cupboard official’s safety element, was sidelined on Jan. 16, following allegations of getting an extramarital affair with Chavez-DeRemer. He resigned earlier this month.
Since January, Inspector Basic Anthony D’Esposito’s workplace has been probing allegations of misconduct — which have been first uncovered by The Put up — that additionally claimed the labor secretary was abusing her place and even ingesting in her workplace through the workday.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has additionally demanded info concerning the alleged sexual and office misconduct — together with proof that the secretary allegedly took subordinates to an Oregon strip membership shortly after she was confirmed by the Senate in April 2025.
The White Home has stood by the secretary all through the investigation, with President Trump steadily congratulating Chavez-DeRemer for her work at DOL in public occasions.
Han and Wright had labored for her within the Home when she served as a Home Republican representing Oregon’s fifth Congressional District from 2023 to 2025.
The Treasury Division needed to pay out practically $100,000 in taxpayer-appropriated funding final yr to settle an employment discrimination declare stemming from Chavez-DeRemer’s congressional workplace — the best sum recorded since 2019.
“It’s the coverage of the Division of Labor to not touch upon personnel issues,” a DOL spokesperson stated.
Robey and the White Home didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
