President Donald Trump is exploring the possibility of filling another hole in his Cabinet — and one of his own appointees could force the issue.
Anthony D’Esposito, who leads the Labor Department’s in-house watchdog, has spent this year investigating damaging allegations against agency Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her close associates, an investigation that has already prompted several people to resign from the agency.
Dozens of DOL employees have spoken with D’Esposito’s office since he launched the internal investigation in January, according to two department officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Investigators are also looking at information gleaned from travel records, department documents and subpoenas issued to outside parties, including hotels where Chávez-DeRemar stayed during the official trip. The Labor Secretary has denied any wrongdoing.
The alleged culture in the secretary’s office and the inspector general’s digs have created an awkward dance for the two Trump appointees. That could signal Chavez-Dermer’s exit as the White House grapples with a number of high-level vacancies and crises ahead of the midterms. A disorderly departure would also risk upsetting the White House’s pro-worker campaign message and efforts to curb criticism of the president’s stewardship of the economy.
“It’s a huge distraction,” said a DOL official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.
The White House has allowed a story between a former Long Island policeman and a Cabinet secretary that the President joked about Described as a Democrat play as leek also by investigation have led to unattractiveHeadlines. The investigation is nearing an end, although it is unclear how long it will continue. Chávez-DeRemar has said she will cooperate and is expected to meet with investigators.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on whether the president has confidence in the Labor secretary. Chávez-Deremar’s personal attorney declined to comment.
DOL spokeswoman Courtney Parella declined to comment on the investigation, but said the agency “will continue to deliver on the President’s agenda and advance key results for American workers.”
“Any suggestion that the department’s work has been slowed or distracted is not accurate,” Parella said in a statement.
Trump has begun considering whether to fire Chávez-DeRemer and other top officials in recent weeks, and the outcome of D’Esposito’s investigation could force the White House to resign. Several people who came under scrutiny during the investigation have complained about how D’Esposito’s office is handling the case and have accused the office of leaking information to the media.
Meanwhile D’Esposito — a retired New York Police Department detective and former congressman whose single House tenure overlapped with Chavez-Dermer — faces deep skepticism from Democrats and government ethics groups that he will cause harm with his findings. But key witnesses are evading investigators, and there are other limitations that may make it impossible for the investigation to reach a conclusion that satisfies everyone.
Donald Sherman, head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said, “Americans need to know that the DOL’s watchdog is acting impartially, especially when the agency is facing its own scandals, and there are real doubts about it right now.” filed an ethics complaint This month against D’Esposito at the council that oversees federal IGs.
D’Esposito has dismissed Crews and other critics as “political manipulators” and said he is focused on advancing the president’s agenda. And his allies are underestimating the pressure on him.
“He’s doing a great job,” the representative said. Nicole Malliotakis(R.N.Y.). “Lori was one of her very good friends here, and she’s been able to do her job and keep her agency accountable.”
D’Esposito has positioned herself as a protector of taxpayers’ money, appearing on the sidelines to announce busts with federal prosecutors and prominent Trump administration figures like Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. The White House has rewarded the inspector general by giving him a spot on the anti-fraud task force led by Vice President J.D. Vance, a role that D’Esposito referenced in explaining his decision to abandon his bid to reclaim his House seat.
D’Esposito said people should judge him and other Trump-appointed IGs “by results, not rhetoric.”
“To suggest that investigators lose their independence because of who signed the appointment is an insult to professionals who follow the facts and the money wherever they go,” he said in a statement.
D’Esposito reportedly aspired to other high-level law enforcement positions during the presidential transition, including at the Drug Enforcement Administration, before the White House decided to appoint him to the DOL.
Like D’Esposito, Chávez-DeRemar was also out of a job after losing reelection in 2024, and she landed in the DOL with the strong backing of the Teamsters union as Trump tried to capitalize on his gains with working-class voters and rank-and-file union members.
Many of the allegations against Chávez-Deremer and his inner circle relate to alleged misuse of government resources, ranging from scheduling official events to subsidizing his personal travel plans to allegedly drinking alcohol on the job and directing employees to run errands.
A spokesperson for the IG office did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the investigation.
But there may be questions that the IG report has left unanswered because some of the people at the center of the fire are now beyond its reach.
Chávez-DeRemer’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff resigned under pressure from the White House without meeting with the IG’s office. A member of Chávez-Deremer’s security team, who was under investigation amid allegations that he engaged in an extramarital affair with the Labor Secretary, also stepped down, citing his refusal to participate in a “politically motivated investigation”. The Trump administration fired a fourth DOL official shortly after investigators pressed him over travel expenses related to events scheduled for the secretary.
The IG’s office generally has no authority over former employees. The lack of authority even extends to people who don’t work for the department, such as the husband of the labor secretary, who was banned from DOL headquarters earlier this year after employees reported he touched them inappropriately.
DeRemer has denied the allegations through an attorney, and D.C. law enforcement investigated an alleged incident but closed the case without filing charges. His attorney, James Bell, did not respond to a request for comment.
Inspectors general are generally considered non-partisan and independent from the agencies they oversee, but D’Esposito has aligned himself with the administration’s messaging and his sharp-elbowed style after Trump fired Labor’s previous inspector general and watchdogs from other agencies last year.
It is unusual for a former elected official to serve as inspector general — typically a low-profile bureaucrat who focuses on curbing wasteful spending, assessing agency initiatives and investigating internal misconduct — and D’Esposito has faced questions about his political ambitions since being nominated.
“If you’re putting forward Donald Trump’s political allies, it undermines his credibility with the public, when in reality independent investigators don’t care where the information goes, they’ll follow it to the end,” Doug Pasternak of the watchdog group Public Citizen told Politico.
Local Republican leaders on Tuesday Hempstead tax receiver Jeanine Driscoll on Long Island was supported, putting an end to the possibility that D’Esposito would once again face rape. laura gillen (D-N.Y.), who defeated him in 2024 after D’Esposito defeated him two years earlier.
“Anthony D’Esposito has disgraced himself in Congress and made it clear that he cannot be trusted with any position of authority,” Gillen’s campaign said in a statement.
