Claim: Shapiro had no ‘need to know’ about harassment claims against cabinet-level director

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s claim that an HR policy prevented him from learning about sexual harassment allegations against his top aide is contradicted by the policy itself. When confronted with that inconsistency, the administration shifted its defense saying the policy didn’t explicitly prevent the governor from being told, but that officials were only brought in on a “need to know” basis — raising the question as to why the governor wouldn’t meet that qualification with regard to misconduct by a cabinet-level subordinate. 

The picture of a governor possibly left in the dark for months by his own administration on such a serious concern cuts a sharp contrast to the Democratic politician who as attorney general upbraided the Catholic Church leadership for its coverups of sexual abuse charges, and who now, as governor, promotes himself daily on social media and television as the hands-on executive who “gets sh*t done.”

Mike Vereb, a Montgomery County Republican, served as Shapiro’s first Secretary of Legislative Affairs, one of the most powerful cabinet-level positions in the executive office. In March 2023, a younger female deputy in that office accused him of sexually harassing her. Vereb, who previously served as a state representative from Montgomery County at the same time as Shapiro and later as legislative affairs director for Shapiro in the attorney general’s office, eventually resigned, but not until six months later — Sept. 27, 2023.

The office reached a $295,000 settlement, signed by the accuser on Aug. 31, and the governor’s office on Sept. 1. Both parties agreed to non-disclosure agreements.

The governor had largely been able to quiet the controversy until the 2024 “Veepstakes.” As Vice President Kamala Harris was weighing potential running mates, national media began to focus on the scandal given that Shapiro became a finalist. That’s when Shapiro’s spokesperson told the New York Times one reason for the delay in Vereb’s departure was because the governor “was not aware of the complaint or investigation until months after the complaint was filed.”

In response to that admission, only Broad + Liberty pressed the administration to find out exactly when Shapiro did find out. It wasn’t until further reporting earlier this year that Shapiro’s spokesman, Manuel Bonder, said by the time Shapiro was informed “the Commonwealth had already begun settlement discussions with the complainant,” which would have placed his knowledge of the matter sometime in July or August, given when the settlement was completed. That placement, it should be noted, assumes Shapiro’s knowledge happened sometime before the settlement was signed.

Bonder added that the administration has since changed its procedures: “Having learned from this experience, in the future, the Governor will be immediately informed of any complaint of this sort.”

Then this summer, in a longer profile piece about Shapiro’s possible White House ambitions, reporter Tom McGrath with Philadelphia Magazine had the opportunity to ask about the dissonance between the governor’s hands-on persona and the apparent punt on the Vereb scandal. 

“Well, it wasn’t brought to my attention because our policy didn’t require it to be, because our policy required this HR process to be conducted and then a determination to be made,” Shapiro told McGrath.

Broad + Liberty asked the administration to voluntarily provide copies of the policy in question, as well as to any updated or new policies, which it did not do.

Eventually, in response to open records requests asking for the exact policy Shapiro was referencing in his quote, the administration handed over Management Directive 410.10, a policy promulgated in 2012. 

That policy, however, contains no prohibition on sharing harassment allegations with senior leadership. In fact, other provisions suggest upward notification is expected in serious cases, something the Vereb accusations would almost certainly qualify for.

When asked, the administration said the framing of the question was wrong in terms of an explicit prohibition of Shapiro being told.

“The document that you attached (MD 410.10) clearly indicates…that Equal Opportunity Officers must maintain confidentiality and disclose information only to individuals who ‘need to know,’” said spokesperson Will Simons. 

Simons did not respond to numerous follow-up questions — most notably, why the administration believed the governor didn’t qualify as having a need to know. Also, Shapiro said the administration was waiting for an “HR process to be conducted and then a determination to be made.” What was the determination, and when was it finalized? Did the administration consider suspending Vereb while the investigation unfolded?

The directive also prioritizes creating a safe workspace over anonymity or privacy. If an accuser’s claims suggest a wider risk might exist to other employees, the issue must be elevated to senior authorities.

With or without answers, the governor’s timeline still has a major gap. Accepting the governor’s timeline at face value, the administration is still refusing to answer why Vereb stayed for four weeks of September.

Additionally, a video from Sept. 13, 2023, shows Vereb with Shapiro at a major press conference regarding the capture of escaped Chester County inmate Danelo Cavalcante, a story that had gained national attention for several days. Vereb’s presence at the conference strongly suggests he still enjoyed a key role as a trusted advisor — at least two weeks after Shapiro implies he first found out.

Vereb did not respond to a request for comment. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VDxwWqrIgVQ, Youtube account @LilStinkers

Broad + Liberty reached out for comment to eight female Democratic state senators, nearly all of whom would have been in attendance at a closed-door conference with the governor just one week after the scandal first exploded into public view.

“The lawmakers — some of whom had questioned Shapiro’s handling of the allegations lodged against Mike Vereb, his top liaison to the General Assembly — declined to comment after the meeting,” the Inquirer reported at the time. “Some left the hour-long, closed-door meeting visibly frustrated, and one senator later said she still had ‘unanswered questions,’” 

None of those senators replied to Broad + Liberty’s request for comment. They include Senators Lisa Boscola, Amanda Cappelletti, Maria Collett, Carolyn Committa, Patty Kim, Judith Schwank, Lindsey Williams, and Katie Muth.

In particular, Broad + Liberty asked if the administration told them at the time about Shapiro’s months-long lag of finding out and that a “need to know” policy was the reason.

Republicans, however, say the HR discovery is yet more evidence of mismanagement — or worse.

“It is unimaginable that this sort of behavior could occur by a top cabinet official who has followed the governor throughout his various positions in statewide office, without the governor knowing,” said Republican Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill (York County). “This is either a failure in leadership by the Shapiro administration or a concerted effort to sweep a sexual harassment scandal under the rug.”

State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R – Montgomery/Berks) was similarly critical, saying the commonwealth has “strict policies” to address harassment allegations in the workplace.

“Annually, employees are required to go through training on this and other topics to ensure the workplace remains a safe and healthy environment for all,” Pennycuick said. “As I stated at the time, I have serious concerns about the inappropriate behavior that was tolerated within the Shapiro Administration for months. It begs the question: what did the governor know and when did he know it. Sadly, the issue was not addressed in a transparent or forthright manner. Allowing cabinet level personnel to remain on the job reflects poorly on the governor’s treatment of women and undoubtedly creates a hostile work environment.”

Roughly one week after Vereb resigned, Shapiro gave his first public remarks about the scandal, he offered further reassurance to the public by invoking the fact that two of his top advisers were “strong women” whom the public could trust to maintain a safe work environment, referring to Jennifer Selber, his chief legal officer, and Dana Fritz, his chief of staff.

But as Broad + Liberty reported earlier this year, a document this outlet obtained as part of an open-records appeal shows both Selber and Fritz were reacting to the allegations within days of the accuser leaving her post in March of 2023.

This latest reasoning from the Shapiro office, that the governor was kept out of the information circle because of a “need to know” clause, would seem to further implicate both Selber and Fritz, who clearly would have been the officials deciding whether the governor should be brought into the loop.

The administration also did not provide any answers about its rationale as to why the governor would not need to know, or which person in the office made that decision. If the governor’s office has a new policy, they have thus far declined to provide it. If the old policy remains in force, the governor’s office did not say whether he would be informed if a similar situation were to arise.

Aside from the ever-evolving explanations, other questions have arisen about the administration’s processes, transparency, and document retention.

In February, Broad + Liberty learned that the governor’s office deleted the email account of the accuser sometime in the first fourteen months after she departed, even though records retention schedules suggest the majority of her emails should have been preserved for two years. The administration only revealed this fact in response to open-records litigation filed by this outlet.

Further Right to Know Law requests then showed that the email accounts for other staffers who had also departed the administration had been preserved. The administration’s defense — that the accuser’s account could be deleted because no open records requests had been placed for her emails — is plausible in one sense. But it also ignores a suggested two-year retention by the appropriate state agency. And the administration has ignored many requests to state exactly when the account was deleted.

In another Right to Know request related to Vereb, the administration withheld complete rows of email metadata — essentially a spreadsheet providing the main “fields” of email activity like the “to” and “from” fields, as well as date and subject line. That was an extreme departure from how it handled a similar request for metadata many months before.

Throughout all these developments, Democrats in Harrisburg have been mostly silent. Only Sen. Lindsey Williams (D – Allegheny) has offered any criticism, all of which came in the initial weeks. “I believe victims,” Williams said immediately after the scandal broke. “I am appalled by the accusations and I have a lot of questions about the retaliation she faced after speaking up.”

After Shapiro’s closed-door conference with the women Democratic senators, Williams added that she had “unanswered questions about the process that was followed once the victim came forward.”

In May of this year — well after the revelations of the deleted emails and months after Shapiro first put forward the idea he didn’t know for months — State Sen. Lisa Boscola reiterated her support for the governor. Her spokesperson told this reporter by email that Boscola “did not leave the initial meeting [in Oct. 2023] with the Governor frustrated. She remains confident that the matter was handled appropriately by the Governor’s office.” 

Also quiet has been Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat from Chester County. As a victim of rape, Muth rose to prominence in large part for her #metoo criticisms, especially where sexual misconduct intersects with politics. In an article covering her original campaign, Muth said there had to be “zero tolerance” for sexual misconduct in politics regardless of party, and denounced a “boy’s club” mentality that kept predators safe.

In January 2023, Muth authored a withering 20-post rebuke of Harrisburg’s harassment culture on X.

“Why would survivors want to come forward when their state government enables rape culture & refuses to hold predators accountable? I know the feeling of shame that can erupt out of coming forward,” she posted.

Muth has not offered any specific thoughts about how the administration handled the matter, and does not appear to have authored any subsequent posts on X with the #metoo hashtag since the 20-post thread in January 2023.

Boscola, Williams, and Muth did not return requests for comment for this story.

The Vereb scandal unfolded amid another high-profile harassment case. In early March 2023, Broad + Liberty was first to name then-state Rep. Mike Zabel (D – Delaware County) as the alleged groper of a female lobbyist, who had detailed her accusations months before without specifically naming her accuser.

Zabel announced his plans to resign on March 8, 2023 — one day after Vereb’s accuser quit. Zabel actually tendered his official resignation a week later, contextually important because that was the same time documents show Shapiro’s top leaders taking action on the Vereb issue. Just as Zabel resigned, Spotlight PA reported that Pennsylvania Democrats knew about allegations against the lawmaker for years, but took no action.

Several months later — in November 2023 with Zabel and Vereb both cast away — Shapiro didn’t talk specifically about Vereb but said he was optimistic about progress on sexual harassment cases and the culture in Harrisburg.

Taking questions at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon, the governor said he was hopeful “to get some bills to my desk that increase transparency in this area and show that we can again come together on a bipartisan basis on important matters like this.”

Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at [email protected], or use his encrypted email at [email protected]. @shepherdreports