Lori Chavez-DeRemer out as Labor secretary

By Alejandra Jaramillo, Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is stepping down from the Trump administration to take a job in the private sector amid an internal investigation into possible misconduct.

“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung announced in a statement. “She 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.”

Keith Sonderling will serve as acting secretary of the Department of Labor, Cheung added.

CNN has asked the White House for more details, including when Chavez-DeRemer’s departure will take effect.

In a statement on X, Chavez-DeRemer wrote that it had “been an honor and a privilege to serve in this historic Administration and work for the greatest President of my lifetime.”

“I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first,” she wrote.

Chavez-DeRemer’s brief tenure has been one marked by turmoil as she’s come under internal investigation following complaints within the department about her conduct. The New York Times previously reported that her husband had been banned from the department’s headquarters amid sexual assault allegations. A criminal investigation into that matter has been closed.

In March, two of her top aides were forced out amid an investigation into misconduct at the agency.

For months, the Labor Department’s Inspector General’s Office has been investigating a complaint that Chavez-DeRemer was having a sexual relationship with a member of her security team, as well as other allegations of inappropriate behavior, such as sending staff to pick up liquor and attempting to use business trips as excuses for personal travel, according to a Department of Labor source with knowledge of the situation.

For example, Chavez-DeRemer had expressed a desire to go to events such as a UFC fight in Chicago, a Morgan Wallen concert and to see friends and family in various states, and asked staff to design work trips that would provide her openings to attend those events, the source said.

As part of the investigation, text messages between Chavez-DeRemer, her close family members and staff members at the department that were personal in nature were turned over to the inspector general, according to the source. The messages included exchanges between Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and at least one young staff member, in which he asked to be kept abreast of her whereabouts.

Chavez-DeRemer’s lawyer, Nick Oberheiden, said in a statement to CNN before her new job was announced, “Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has made a name for herself as a zealous advocate for American workers. Mission-focused and committed to President Trump with utmost loyalty, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer will not comment on biased and absurd allegations against her.”

Chavez-DeRemer was sworn in as secretary of labor in March 2025, a time when the Trump administration, via the Department of Government Efficiency, sought to slash federal funding, cut programs and drastically reduce the federal workforce by cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs.

As of February, the Labor Department’s workforce was nearly 25% smaller than it was in September 2024, US Office of Personnel Management data shows.

Reductions in staffing at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in particular, stoked concern from policymakers, economists, academics, researchers and others, who sounded the alarm that existing funding and staffing were not adequate to make the “gold-standard” data more modernized and robust. And the agency faced acute upheaval when Trump fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer following a jobs report that contained large revisions.

In the days following McEntarfer’s firing, Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business that it was her job to support the president in the matter.

During her tenure, Chavez-DeRemer’s Labor Department announced sweeping deregulatory efforts aimed at rewriting or repealing more than 60 workplace regulations it deemed obsolete. Those included proposals to eliminate a minimum wage requirement for home health care workers, remove a standard requiring lighting in active construction areas and reduce health and safety regulations in the mining industry.

Chavez-DeRemer is the third Cabinet secretary to leave Trump’s government in recent weeks, after he fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

This story has been updated with additional context.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Rene Marsh and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.