A local police investigation of a report that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband sexually assaulted a female staffer has been closed after police found no evidence of a crime. But Shawn DeRemer remains banned from the Labor Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., amid an inquiry by the office of the department’s inspector general.
Three female Labor Department staffers, all political appointees, have complained internally at the agency that DeRemer touched them inappropriately, according to two people familiar with the matter.
DeRemer, an Oregon anesthesiologist, is still banned from the Labor Department because the women have maintained their accusations, said one of the people, who was not authorized to speak to the media and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The New York Times first reported DeRemer’s ban from the building.
It has not been previously reported that three women made the accusations and all are political appointees. Political appointees are named by the president, but The Washington Post could not confirm whether President Donald Trump had appointed all three women.
DeRemer has been blocked from entering the Labor Department’s Washington headquarters since Jan. 27. The agency’s solicitor banned him after the inspector general’s office recommended doing so in accordance with agency protocol for protecting employees, according to one of the people familiar with the investigation.
The allegations against DeRemer came to light amid an ongoing investigation by the Labor Department’s inspector general of Chavez-DeRemer, according to a different person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share confidential conversations with reporters. The inspector general is investigating complaints that she misused public funds for personal travel and had an inappropriate relationship with a member of her security team since joining Trump’s cabinet last March.
DeRemer has denied all sexual misconduct allegations. James Bell, an attorney representing him, did not respond to a request for comment. But Bell told the Wall Street Journal in a statement Friday that DeRemer had been cleared by the U.S. attorney’s office, describing the encounter between DeRemer and the employee who filed the report as a “friendly hug/embrace.”
An attorney representing Chavez-DeRemer in the inspector general investigation declined multiple requests for comment but told The Post in January that “we are monitoring, with concern, that work-related information about the Secretary appears to be shared externally.”
The Washington Metropolitan Police Department went to Chavez-DeRemer’s office on Feb. 5 to take photos and gather video surveillance after one of the employees filed a police report about DeRemer, said one of the people familiar with the investigation. Politico first reported on the police visit to Chavez-DeRemer’s office.
The woman filed the report on Jan. 24 alleging forced sexual contact by DeRemer at the Labor Department on Dec. 18, according to a copy obtained by The Post and one of the people familiar with the investigation. The police department’s sexual assault unit and the U.S. attorney’s office reviewed evidence and found no indication of a crime, spokespeople from both agencies told The Post over the weekend.
The police department said Sunday that the case has been closed, after confirming Thursday that the investigation was open.
“Based upon the evidence presented to this office …, there is no indication of a crime,” a spokesperson from the office of U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said Friday.
The White House did not return a request for comment but press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last month that Trump continues to support Chavez-DeRemer.
The scope of the allegations against Chavez-DeRemer has widened since the New York Post first reported in early January that the former Republican congresswoman from Oregon had taken personal trips on what was supposed to be official taxpayer-funded travel. The New York Post also reported that Chavez-DeRemer was under investigation for an inappropriate relationship with a member of her security detail.
The labor secretary and her husband have been married for more than three decades, and were high school sweethearts, Chavez-DeRemer has previously said. The two founded an anesthesia management company and several medical clinics across the Pacific Northwest. In her opening remarks at her confirmation hearing last year, Chavez-DeRemer thanked her husband, who she said had “stood by my side through every triumph and challenge.”
DeRemer has been licensed to practice medicine in Oregon since 2000, according to state records.
The Labor Department did not respond to a request for comment. Spokeswoman Courtney Parella previously said that the department would not comment on “internal or personnel matters.”
Salvador Rizzo contributed to this report.
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