President Donald Trump’s embattled labor secretary has been hit by a flurry of new accusations in a workplace discrimination complaint.
Three people have filed formal discrimination complaints against Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, accusing her of fostering a toxic workplace and retaliating against women who came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, MS NOW and The New York Times report.
Dr. Shawn DeRemer was banned from entering the Labor Department headquarters earlier this year after being accused by two female staffers of inappropriate touching. DeRemer has denied all sexual misconduct allegations.
The three civil rights complaints describe a hostile work environment under Chavez-DeRemer, 58, in which staff feared retaliation for speaking out or pushing back against directives. The complaints also allege misuse of official resources.
The new pressure on Chavez-DeRemer comes as Trump has shown a greater willingness to shake up his Cabinet, firing two female secretaries—DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi—in the last five weeks.
One complaint filed last month alleges Chavez-DeRemer asked her staff to help with personal chores, including cleaning out one of the closets in her apartment and running errands for her husband, the Times reports.
Chavez-DeRemer and her top two aides, former chief of staff Jihun Han and former deputy chief of staff Rebecca Wright, used threats to get staff to go along with inappropriate requests and conduct, according to the complaint.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Labor Department for comment.
The labor secretary is already under investigation by her department’s internal watchdog over a laundry list of complaints and potential misconduct allegations.
The allegations include claims that Chavez-DeRemer, a former Oregon congresswoman, drinks on the job in her Washington, D.C., office and had an affair with one of her bodyguards.
Han and Wright are also accused of fabricating official events so Chavez-DeRemer could take taxpayer-funded trips in order to spend time with family or friends and provide “cover” for her alleged misdeeds. The two aides left their jobs in March.
Meanwhile, Brian Sloan, a member of Chavez-DeRemer’s security team with whom she allegedly had an inappropriate sexual relationship, was put on leave in January pending the internal investigation. He quit last month.
Two female staffers told officials that Shawn DeRemer, who has been married to the labor secretary for more than three decades, had inappropriately touched them at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue.
In January, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department filed a report about an alleged forced sexual contact by DeRemer at the headquarters on Dec. 18, according to a copy viewed by the Daily Beast.
After reviewing the evidence, the police sexual assault unit and the U.S. attorney’s office found no indication that a crime occurred and closed its investigation into DeRemer, but he remains barred from the department headquarters.
Chavez-DeRemer has been married to her husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, for more than three decades. The couple have twin daughters together.
