Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces professional misconduct allegations that have led to the suspension of two of her top aides and a DOL in-house watchdog investigation that reportedly has interviewed at least a dozen government officials and staff, five sources familiar with probe told the New York Post, which broke the story on January 9^th.

A complaint filed with the Department of Labor’s inspector general alleges that Chief of Staff Jihun Han and his deputy, Rebecca Wright, scheduled personal travel for Chavez-DeRemer during supposedly official, taxpayer-funded trips, according to the New York Post story. Both Han and Wright worked for Chavez-DeRemer while she served in the House as a GOP representative from Oregon. The labor secretary is also alleged of having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer and drinking in her office during work hours, with the two aides aware of her actions, according to the New York Post. The allegations have since been reported in Politico, Bloomberg Law, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The DOL’s Office of Inspector General told Politico that it can neither confirm or deny the existence of a an investigation.

It is unclear who will help run Chavez-DeRemer’s office in the absence of the two aides or whether they are still being paid, while the probe is underway. The aides’ temporary removal is not indicative of any wrongdoing, according to a Politico article.

Chavez-DeRemer has traveled to at least 36 states for dozens of events since taking office last March, and she has endeavored to visit all 50 states in her first year on a listening tour touted as a way to connect with rank-and-file workers, according to the Washington Post. 

The Trump administration is making a show of support for Chavez-DeRemer, 57, with White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers telling the New York Post that the claims are “baseless.”

“These unsubstantiated allegations are categorically false,” DOL spokesperson Courtney Parella said in the New York Post January 9^th article.  “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer has complied with all ethics rules and department policies and remains fully engaged in carrying out the department’s work on behalf of this historic administration. The secretary is considering all possible avenues, including legal action, to fight these baseless accusations from anonymous sources.”

“Despite attempts of distraction and attacks on her personal life, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer continues to focus on her assigned mission — to advance President Trump’s economic agenda to improve the lives of American workers,” said her attorney, Nick Oberheiden, in a statement.

Sources told the Washington Post that Chavez-DeRemer has largely been absent from Washington amid her 50-state “America at Work” tour, meeting with workers, employers and union members. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling has been leading policy and personnel decision-making in Washington, they said.

“Keith has been running the Labor Department since Day 1, as we thought he would,” one source told the Washington Post. “Her substantive interest is not that great in many areas. She hasn’t been in the building much. She has had, from what I can determine, minimal involvement in substantive matters,” the source told the Post.

Chavez-DeRemer has shown strong loyalty to President Trump since she took the job. She has sought to advance the administration’s immigration crackdown by embarking on a campaign to discover alleged misuse of a highly skilled visa program and launching a social media campaign that depicts a nearly all-White workforce, according to the Washington Post article.

The secretary has also maintained a close relationship with the Teamsters union, which lobbied for her to get the cabinet position and has a favorable relationship with Trump. While in Congress, the Oregon Republican was one of the few GOP voices to speak favorably of unions.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on January 15^th that Trump continues to support Chavez-DeRemer.

“He’s aware of the internal investigation, and he stands by the secretary, and he thinks that she’s doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers,” she said.

A Teamsters spokeswoman said in a statement that Chavez-DeRemer is “the most engaged Labor Secretary we’ve had under a Republican administration, consistently visiting workplaces and meeting with workers across the country.”

Employees within the department’s headquarters told the Washington Post that Chavez-DeRemer has been noticeably less present in the building than past secretaries and that she also does not share her schedule with staffers as her predecessors did, three people told the Post. Her public schedule has not been updated since August. She has never held an all-hands meeting with the department’s staff, three people told the Post.