Why Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Office Settled Former Assistant Mike Vereb for $295K

As Gov. Josh Shapiro emerges as a potential frontrunner to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, one of the few scandals marking his two decades in Pennsylvania politics is resurfacing.

Erin McClelland, the Democratic candidate for state treasurer in November, drew attention last week for her little-known and unusual intra-party position jab, writing on Twitter that she wished the vice presidential candidate, among other things, would “not sweep sexual harassment under the rug.”

Although McClelland did not mention Shapiro by name, her blunt remarks were widely interpreted as a reference to the resignation last year of one of Shapiro’s top aides and closest allies, Mike Vereb, amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation.

Vereb, 57, abruptly resigned from his post in September, three weeks after the Shapiro administration quietly agreed to pay $295,000 to settle claims by an employee of the governor’s office who said he made repeated sexual advances on her and often spoke openly — and lewdly — about her, other staff members and a state senator.

Shapiro’s administration largely avoided discussion of Vereb throughout the year, describing his departure as a private personnel matter while maintaining that it “takes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.” His silence drew criticism from female state legislators in both parties, who called for a more limpid accounting of what Shapiro knew about his assistant’s behavior and when.

Here’s what you need to know:

Who is Mike Vereb?

Vereb most recently served as Shapiro’s legislative secretary, a key member of his cabinet. He was one of the few people who He has been a member of the governor’s inner circle of advisors for years.

Their relationship dates back nearly two decades, when Vereb, a Republican, and Shapiro, a Democrat, served alongside each other in the state House, where both represented Montgomery County, from 2007 to 2012. There, Vereb, who represented a district in West Norriton, and Shapiro, who represented Abington, forged a bipartisan friendship and often teamed up to advance legislation in the county’s best interests.

When Shapiro was elected attorney general in 2016, he made Vereb — in one of his first appointments in the job — his office’s main liaison to the rest of state government. And after Shapiro was elected governor, he quickly appointed Vereb to a position in his Cabinet.

As Shapiro’s main liaison to the General Assembly, Vereb played a key role in managing the administration’s interactions with the Legislature, particularly during negotiations over the annual state budget.

However, in September 2023, after less than nine months on the job, he unexpectedly resigned from his position.

Why did Vereb resign?

While the administration has not provided any explanation for Vereb’s sudden decision to leave, The Inquirer reported last year that his departure was prompted by allegations that he sexually harassed a female assistant.

His accuser, who worked with Vereb for less than two months before resigning in early 2023, said he repeatedly made suggestive comments and innuendos that made her feel uncomfortable, such as suggesting she wear low-cut blouses and high-slit skirts.

“I felt uncomfortable with Mike’s behavior in the office — his constant sexual comments and the way he addressed work-related issues,” the woman — whose name The Inquirer is not identifying because of allegations of sexual harassment — said in a statement to the state Office of Equal Employment Opportunity obtained by The Inquirer.

At one point, she said, Vereb compared her to another employee in his office, whom he said he was not sexually interested in because she had a “Type A personality” that “would probably make me [him] “Iron her sheets and pillowcases before sex.”

When the accuser warned Vereb that his behavior toward her had become the subject of office gossip, he turned to her and demanded to know who was talking about them — and made another sexual advance, she said. He insisted that if they decided to have a sexual relationship, “that would be our business,” she said in her complaint.

“If you’ve decided you want to do this,” Vereb reportedly told the woman, “go and close the door to that office, have me bend you over the conference table, pull up your skirt, and [have sex with you] …we have to make that decision.”

Later, she said, he called her drunk after a party at the governor’s mansion and again proposed a sexual encounter, claiming he knew how to hide from security cameras in the tunnels under the Capitol, and interrogated her again to find out who in their office had talked about them.

A few days later, she was called into a meeting with the governor’s human resources department. When she asked Vereb about it, he said he vaguely mentioned “performance concerns” at her job.

After reporting the encounters with Vereb at a meeting in early March 2023 and a subsequent meeting with other Shapiro administration staff members several days later, the woman ultimately made the decision to leave her job.

Neither she nor Vereb addressed her allegations publicly in the following months.

What kind of investigation was conducted?

Vereb’s accuser filed a statement with the state Office of Equal Opportunities, part of the executive branch, the same month she resigned. She also filed a separate complaint with the state Human Relations Commission in June 2023.

Both units handle workplace discrimination complaints filed by government employees and typically conduct investigations in secret. It’s still unclear how far the complaints against Vereb progressed through the investigative process before the Shapiro administration agreed to a $295,000 settlement in September of this year.

The agreement did not involve any admission of wrongdoing by Vereb or the governor’s office and required all parties to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from publicly discussing the accuser’s allegations.

The governor’s office later said it could not discuss the matter. Shapiro’s spokesman maintained at the time, that the administration has “robust procedures…to thoroughly investigate reports of discrimination and harassment” [that] provide detailed guidance to help ensure that allegations are promptly and fully investigated and that employees feel comfortable reporting misconduct.”

What did Shapiro know?

It remains unclear when Shapiro first learned of the allegations against his assistant.

Although the accuser filed the charges in March 2023 — less than two months after Shapiro took office as governor — Vereb continued to play a prominent role in Shapiro’s administration for months before his September resignation, during which time copies of the supposedly confidential complaint and the woman’s statements to investigators had been circulating among lawmakers and lobbyists for weeks.

What did Shapiro say about this situation?

Shapiro and his office did not directly address the allegations against Vereb or the circumstances of his resignation.

In the administration’s press release announcing Vereb’s departure, Shapiro’s chief of staff, Dana Fritz, praised him as a “key member of our team” who has spent “decades of years serving our Community.” The release did not include a direct statement from Shapiro.

However, the governor defended his administration’s handling of harassment and discrimination complaints during a news conference held a week after Vereb left office after news of the allegations against him emerged.

“You owe it to the victim to make sure that you have a confidential process, you have a rigorous process based on integrity, to make sure that their voice is heard and to make sure that appropriate outcomes are achieved,” Shapiro said. “And we are committed to that … in our administration.”

What does this mean for Shapiro’s chances of being selected as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate?

It is not yet clear whether the Vereb scandal could prevent Shapiro from running as a Democrat this year, but he faced negative backlash last week.

A tweet last week by McClelland, the Democratic candidate for state treasurer, threw the Vereb incident into the ongoing debate over who Harris should choose as her vice presidential running mate and could set off a new wave of demands for Shapiro to explain more about how he handled the accusations against his aide.

And Shapiro’s opponents in the vice presidential race have begun circulating opposition research trying to link him to his assistant’s past conduct, hoping to slam him in a year when a woman leads the Democratic ticket — and is trying to portray former President Donald Trump as the “womanizer” candidate.

And that criticism is not new. Since Vereb stepped down, state lawmakers of both parties have criticized the Shapiro administration’s lack of transparency.

“It really pisses me off that I have to stop talking because I’m going to say something I shouldn’t,” state Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) told The Inquirer last year. “It’s so irritating that [Vereb] He remained in this position for many months, it was one of the highest positions in the administration.”