Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned Monday, the White House said, days before she was expected to sit for an interview with the Labor Department's inspector general over allegations she had an affair with a subordinate and used agency resources for personal travel. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling will run the department in an acting capacity.

Chavez-DeRemer, 58, is the third member of President Trump's second-term Cabinet to depart in seven weeks, following Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in early March and Attorney General Pam Bondi roughly a month later. Her exit removes the administration's chief labor official at a moment when the department is negotiating with major unions and preparing rulemakings that had made her, a former Republican congresswoman who backed the PRO Act, an unusual fit in a Republican Cabinet.

What the White House said

White House communications director Steven Cheung announced the departure in an X post, writing that Chavez-DeRemer "has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives." Cheung said she was taking a position in the private sector. A senior Labor Department official, speaking to NPR on the condition of anonymity, said the secretary had resigned.

Chavez-DeRemer's attorney, Nick Oberheiden, told MS NOW in a statement relayed by CNBC that "Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not resign due to findings that she violated the law. Her decision to leave office was personal."

The investigation

The New York Post first reported in January that the Labor Department's inspector general was examining complaints that Chavez-DeRemer was having an affair with a subordinate, drinking alcohol on the job and using taxpayer-funded travel to visit friends and family, NPR reported. CNBC, citing a source familiar with the matter who spoke to MS NOW, reported that the allegations also included an affair with a member of her security detail and that she was expected to be interviewed by investigators in the coming days.

NPR said it "has not independently verified the contents of the investigation."

The probe has already reached into the secretary's inner circle. NPR reported that Chavez-DeRemer's chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, both on leave since January, resigned in early March. A third senior aide, Melissa Robey, said in a March 26 statement that she had been fired two days after sitting for a four-hour interview with the Office of the Inspector General.

A troubled tenure

Chavez-DeRemer spent much of her time in office outside Washington on what she called her "America at Work" listening tour, which NPR said took her to all 50 states. CNBC reported that the department's social media accounts drew criticism for posts that echoed imagery associated with extreme right-wing movements, including one that appeared to mirror a Nazi Party slogan, and that Labor headquarters was among federal buildings decorated with a large banner of Trump's face.

The secretary's husband, Portland, Ore., anesthesiologist Shawn DeRemer, was barred from Labor Department headquarters after at least two staffers reported he had touched them inappropriately, the New York Times first reported, according to NPR. Washington, D.C., police and federal prosecutors closed their investigations without bringing charges.

The successor

Sonderling served at the Labor Department during Trump's first term and held a Republican seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Biden administration, NPR said. He has been running day-to-day operations at Labor for some time. "We will keep up the fight to put American workers first," Sonderling wrote on X, thanking Trump for the appointment.

Caveats

Beyond Cheung's statement and Oberheiden's denial, no substantive defense of Chavez-DeRemer from conservative commentators or congressional Republicans had surfaced by press time, and the inspector general has not released findings. NPR said it had not verified the misconduct claims. The D.C. investigations into Shawn DeRemer closed without charges.

The inspector general's interview with Chavez-DeRemer had been expected this week, CNBC reported. Whether it proceeds now that she has left office, and whether the office issues a public report, will determine how much of the record becomes visible.