After scandal rumbling: Third Trump minister leaves

TT

Published 11.29

          

          

         Lori Chavez-DeRemer leaves her ministerial post. The photo was taken at the White House in                     March.

         1 / 2Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/TT

An extramarital affair, private trips at taxpayer expense and drinking on the job. US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving her job after serious allegations.

She is the third Trump minister to leave in a short time – all women.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer has done a “phenomenal job,” writes White House communications director Steven Cheung in an X-post in which he announces that the minister is going to the private sector.

This is happening shortly before the Labor Department’s internal investigation into her, which was initiated after an alarm from a whistleblower, is completed, writes The New York Times. The Senate Judiciary Committee has also requested material for its own investigation.

Luxury hotels and drinks

The internal investigation is examining, among other things, claims that the minister had an affair with a member of her security team and that she took private trips and stayed in luxury hotels and let the department foot the bill, according to the newspaper. Employees are also said to have raised the alarm that the 58-year-old former congressman from Oregon drinks alcohol during work hours and sends inappropriate text messages to younger colleagues.

There are concerns that the internal investigation contains embarrassing details and several of Chavez-DeRemer's closest associates have quit in recent months, according to The New York Times.

In parallel, the minister's husband Shawn DeRemer has been denied access to the department building after several female employees accused him of sexual harassment, the newspaper writes.

Three women

Lori Chavez-DeRemer has not been formally accused of misconduct and Donald Trump has called the accusation against her "baseless", notes Axios. Her work is now being taken over by Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who will be given an acting role.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third minister from Donald Trump's administration to be forced out in a short period of time.

In April, Pam Bondi was forced to resign as attorney general, following, among other things, frustration with her handling of the so-called Epstein documents - material from the investigation of convicted and now deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And in March, Kristi Noem was fired from her role as secretary of homeland security, after, among other things, being criticized for controversial raids on undocumented immigrants.