WASHINGTON — One other Labor Division official has been positioned on administrative depart for allegedly misusing taxpayer {dollars} on official journey — as an in depth watchdog probe of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer rolls on, The Put up can verify.
Director of advance Melissa Robey was sidelined simply days after the White Home pressured Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of workers Jihun Han and deputy Rebecca Wright to resign, sources mentioned.
The New York Instances first reported Wednesday on Robey being positioned on depart.
An individual aware of the probe, which is being performed by the DOL Workplace of Inspector Common, mentioned Robey had expensed a multi-thousand-dollar limousine journey throughout a departmental tour to North Dakota and turned in vouchers for extreme travel-related expenditures on different autos in addition to lodge stays.
Robey joined DOL final yr however had been working instantly for Chavez-DeRemer after Han and Wright had been placed on depart Jan. 12.
Dozens of interviews performed as a part of IG Anthony D’Esposito’s inquiry into the Labor secretary and her prime aides had uncovered proof of Han and Wright making a “hostile” office at division headquarters and squandering public cash whereas on official journeys, sources famous.
After Chavez-DeRemer left Congress to develop into labor secretary, her workplace needed to pay out almost $100,000 final yr to settle an employment discrimination declare — the best sum recorded that yr.
On Jan. 16, a member of Chavez-DeRemer’s safety element was additionally positioned on administrative depart after The Put up first reported on a whistleblower grievance, filed with D’Esposito’s workplace, that alleged the bodyguard was in an “inappropriate” relationship with the secretary.
Extra complaints had been submitted towards Han and Wright in the course of the investigation for exerting improper affect over junior workers, sources added.
The preliminary IG grievance additionally accused the secretary of getting Han and Wright “make up” official journeys to locations she visited for private causes — together with the ex-Oregon congresswoman’s dwelling state; Arizona, the place she has a second dwelling together with her anesthesiologist husband; and Las Vegas.
Chavez-DeRemer engaged in unprofessional interactions together with her alleged paramour throughout journeys to Sin Metropolis final yr, the grievance additional alleged.
IG investigators have since heard that the secretary took subordinates to an Oregon strip membership throughout an official departmental go to in April 2025.
Chavez-DeRemer, 57, and Wright spent 5 days in Palm Seaside, Fla., throughout an America First Coverage Institute occasion this previous December and flouted ethics guidelines by not paying their very own manner for a dinner they shared on the junket, based on the IG grievance.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the highly effective Senate Judiciary Committee, has been independently probing the secretary and her senior aides’ alleged misconduct.
The White Home has defended Chavez-DeRemer, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Jan. 15 that President Trump “thinks that she’s doing an incredible job on the Division of Labor on behalf of American employees.”
Chavez-DeRemer’s private lawyer has mentioned she “firmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing.”
Neither Robey nor reps for DOL, D’Esposito’s workplace and the White Home responded to requests for remark.
