Labor secretary’s husband barred amid assault probe

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemmer and her husband, Shawn DeRemmer — At least two women on staff at the department accused DeRemer of touching them inappropriately

(Image credit: Nathan Posner / Anadolu via Getty Images)

What happened

Sexual assault allegations against Shawn DeRemer, the husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, got him barred from the Labor Department’s headquarters and prompted a police investigation, The New York Times and other news organizations reported Thursday, citing a Jan. 24 police report and people familiar with the matter. At least two women on staff at the department reportedly accused DeRemer of touching them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C.

Who said what

“If Mr. DeRemer attempts to enter, he is to be asked to leave,” security staff at the building were told in a late January notice warning, according to the Times and Politico. DeRemer, an anesthesiologist in Oregon, was also “disinvited” from the Jan. 29 D.C. premiere of “Melania,” said The Wall Street Journal.

One of the alleged groping incidents, “during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras,” the Times said. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s investigation into that complaint of forced “sexual contact” is “active,” Politico said, and being carried out by the department’s sexual assault unit. “I categorically deny these things” and will “fight everything in this,” DeRemer told the Journal.

What next?

The allegations against DeRemer reportedly emerged during an investigation by the Labor Department’s inspector general into complaints that Chavez-DeRemer “was having an inappropriate sexual relationship” with a “member of her security detail” and “abusing her office by taking staff to strip clubs, drinking alcohol on the job and taking personal trips at taxpayer expense,” the Times said. She has denied the allegations, but her “chief of staff and deputy chief of staff have been placed on leave for weeks,” Politico said. The White House “has so far stuck by Chavez-DeRemer.”

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.