The email account of a top aide who accused a cabinet secretary of sexual harassment was deleted.
In 2023, a Shapiro administration aide resigned after accusing a cabinet secretary of sexual harassment.
The aide was a young woman in her early thirties who worked in the Governor’s Office of Legislative Affairs under Mike Vereb. The young woman quit the job just weeks after it started and later filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. She left the job in March of 2023.
Vereb stayed in his position until September of 2023, despite the complaint against him. He remained in the position weeks after the governor’s office settled the matter out of court for $295,000.
The governor’s office told the New York Times at the time of his consideration for the vice-presidential nomination that Shapiro did not know of the allegations against Vereb until many months later.
A spokesman for the Shapiro administration gave no additional details beyond the statement that Shapiro “was not aware of the complaint or investigation until months after it was filed.”
“In this instance, as stated in the [accuser’s] complaint, the employee immediately resigned her position upon making a report and an independent investigation immediately began, as is our Administration’s policy. The Governor was not aware of the complaint or investigation until months after the complaint was filed, and at that time the Commonwealth had already begun settlement discussions with the complainant,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman concluded, “As the Governor and our Administration has stated, it is clear that this process should have allowed for this complaint to come to his attention sooner. Having learned from that experience, processes are now in place so that if any complaint is lodged against a member of the Governor’s senior staff or cabinet, he will be informed immediately. Governor Shapiro has no tolerance for harassment in the workplace, or anywhere else.”
Internal records obtained from the governor’s office suggest the email account of the aide was deleted outside of routine records policy. It appears to be the only account to have had its records entirely wiped from state servers during that period.
The sexual harassment case within his administration has been one of the biggest challenges facing Shapiro. The deleted records raise questions about the Shapiro administration’s handling of the case, and whether the account was deleted intentionally.
The governor’s office has insisted that the accuser’s emails were handled in accordance with routine policy, but the retention schedule enforced at the time required retention of emails from the Office of Legislative Affairs for a minimum of two years or until the end of the legislative session, whichever is longer.
Her emails were requested one year after her resignation, and they had been deleted. Several pending Right to Know Law requests have been filed as a result of the situation.
