Fourth Labor Department Staffer Leaves Amid Investigation Of Chavez-deremer

A Labor Department staffer said she was abruptly fired by the Trump administration this week after meeting with the in-house watchdog investigating Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

Melissa Robey, who led Chavez-DeRemer’s advance team, said she was terminated without explanation Tuesday evening, a day after she sat with inspector general's office staffers for four hours of sworn testimony.

She accused department officials of engaging in a “cowardly” effort to leak information against her as part of what she described “an internal plan to embarrass and defame me in a failed effort to force me to resign.”

A Labor Department spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters.

Robey, who was responsible for helping the Labor secretary prepare for events and coordinating travel logistics, is the fourth person tied to the investigation to leave the department in recent weeks.

Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff stepped down under pressure from White House officials at the beginning of the month, and a member of her security detail resigned on March 13.

All four had been placed on leave by the department after coming under scrutiny in the investigation being led by Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican who lost a reelection bid for a House seat in 2024.

The IG's office has been investigating allegations that Chavez-DeRemer was engaged in an extramarital affair with the security officer, as well as allegations that she drank on the job, and that her staffers violated federal rules regarding taxpayer-funded travel and cooked up official events to facilitate the Labor secretary’s personal travel.

Chavez-DeRemer has denied any wrongdoing, and the White House has previously stuck behind the Labor secretary during the investigation.

Unlike Robey, the other aides implicated in the investigation left the agency before meeting with the inspector general office, which can compel cooperation from current employees but not former staffers.

Robey said in a statement provided to POLITICO that she was questioned over her decision to book a “Ford Expedition and not a foreign made sub compact car” while traveling in North Dakota as part of her duties, which she said was for the safety of Chavez-DeRemer and her staff.

“I believe any cabinet official of the United States of America should travel in a safe American made car,” Robey said in her statement.

Neither the inspector general's office nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

The New York Post first reported Robey’s firing.

Robey is not the only person who has complained about how the investigation has been reported in the media.

An attorney representing Chavez-DeRemer's former security officer, Brian Sloan, previously accused the IG’s office of leaking to the media.

And a lawyer for Shawn DeRemer, the Labor secretary’s husband, has said that people within DOL were gunning for her job after DeRemer was banned from DOL headquarters, due to a criminal investigation into alleged sexual misconduct that was closed in February with no charges.