Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office withheld rows of metadata in response to a document request from this organization — a striking departure from how it handled a similar request by another reporter well over a year earlier. The inconsistency again suggests that the administration may be selectively applying transparency rules when it comes to scrutiny of the Mike Vereb scandal.
The finding comes just weeks after Broad + Liberty reported that the Shapiro administration deleted the email account of the young woman deputy who accused Mike Vereb of workplace sexual harassment — while preserving the accounts of other former staffers. Together, the reports raise new questions about whether the administration is selectively withholding or deleting records tied to the scandal.
The background starts in February 2023, as Shapiro, fresh off his electoral win, was starting to assemble his government. A young woman in her early thirties accepted a job as a deputy secretary in the governor’s Office of Legislative Affairs. That office was headed up by Shapiro’s long-serving aide, Mike Vereb, a Montgomery County Republican who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives at the same time as Shapiro.
The young woman abruptly quit five weeks into her job in March 2023, accusing Vereb of workplace harassment. Although Shapiro claims to have only found out about the accusations months later in July or August, Vereb managed to remain in his post until late September that year.
Broad + Liberty has since filed a number of Right to Know Law requests on the matter, and in a court hearing earlier this year, an attorney for the governor disclosed that emails for the young woman could not be produced because her email account had been deleted.
In this newest instance, Broad + Liberty requested all email metadata for Vereb for the month in which the deputy quit, March 2023. Metadata would include information about all sent and received emails like sender, recipient, date, time, and if the email contained any attachments.
Because of a previous Right to Know request, this outlet was already aware of two emails that had been sent to Vereb on March 8, 2023 — believed to be the day after the woman quit. The governor’s office withheld those emails because of the “predecisional deliberations” privilege.
Under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, the “predecisional deliberations” privilege allows the government to withhold internal discussions that occur before an agency reaches a final decision, shielding candid advice, recommendations, or opinions used in the decision-making process. The intent is to encourage open and frank internal dialogue without fear of public disclosure that could chill honest deliberation.
Subsequently, when Broad + Liberty received the first chunk of metadata from the governor’s office in response to the later request, it was notable that the two emails described in the above log were not in the metadata.
“[T]he Office withheld or redacted records or portions of records that are exempt from access under the RTKL. Where email ‘metadata’ is exempt, it has similarly been redacted or withheld from access,” the governor’s spokesman, Manuel Bonder said at the time. “The entries that you reference are exempt from access under the RTKL.”
Essentially, Bonder is saying the metadata for those emails weren’t just completely redacted in the set, the entire rows were removed.
This practice of deleting entire rows of data rather than redacting them stands in sharp contrast to a records request from Spotlight PA reporter Stephen Caruso.
In August 2023, Caruso requested all metadata for a single month for the governor’s chief of staff.
In the appeal that followed, the Office of Open Records noted that the metadata log contained in excess of 5,000 entries. The subject line for 255 of those might “reveal privileged communications,” and “four additional subject lines that reflect internal, predecisional deliberations of various topics, and three subject lines that relate to a noncriminal investigation.”
Yet for all of that privileged information identified — privilege being the same exemption the office applied to the Broad + Liberty request — it seems clear from the OOR final determination on Caruso’s request that the office only applied redactions. Nothing in the final determination would appear to indicate that the office deleted entire rows of data.
The governor’s office sidestepped pointed questions on this matter.
“We understand that you appealed the Office of the Governor’s response in this matter to the Office of Open Records,” Bonder said in an email. “As it did in the Caruso matter that you reference, the Office will be providing evidence and argument in support of its position to the OOR.”
Metadata can play a crucial role in bolstering or undermining a government’s alibi in the midst of scandal. It helps verify whether records were improperly deleted or if timelines presented by officials match internal communications. Without it, journalists and the public are left in the dark.
Meanwhile, the governor’s office still refuses to answer the key question: When, exactly, was the email account for the aide deleted?
When this outlet broke the initial story in March that the deputy’s email account had been deleted, possibly in violation of document retention requirements, Shapiro bristled when asked about the issue at a press conference.
Broad + Liberty still has two Right to Know issues pending before Commonwealth Court. In one of those matters, Broad + Liberty petitioned the court for sanctions given that this outlet devoted substantial resources to litigate emails for an account that was deleted.
In the second of those cases, this outlet won an important ruling from Commonwealth Court Judge Michael Wojcik, dealing with whether an agency may refuse to search for and produce emails for an official based primarily on how high that person ranks in the government.
“The Governor and other individuals in the Office cannot avoid a RTK Law request simply because they are high-ranking officials who transact large amounts of business on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth,” Wojcik ruled. “Simply stated, the Governor and the employees in the Office stand in the same shoes as any other government official who is the subject of a RTK Law request.”
Under Pennsylvania law, specifically 18 Pa.C.S. § 4911, it is a criminal offense to knowingly conceal or destroy public records.
Internal records obtained from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office suggest the email account of a top aide who accused a cabinet secretary of sexual harassment was deleted under suspicious and possibly selective circumstances — and not as part of any routine records policy.
The aide, who resigned in 2023 after lodging the allegation, appears to be the only official whose email records have been entirely wiped from state servers during that period.
The absence of any preserved messages raises sharp questions about whether the Shapiro administration took steps to erase a digital trail tied to a politically sensitive personnel matter — and whether broader email retention practices in the Governor’s Office are compromised or selectively enforced.
The accuser was a young woman in her early thirties who, in the earliest days of the Shapiro administration, accepted a job as a deputy in the Governor’s Office of Legislative Affairs headed up by Mike Vereb, who had held the same position for Shapiro in the Attorney General’s Office. Vereb, a Republican, had a long history with Shapiro, given that both served as state representatives from Montgomery County in the General Assembly slightly more than a decade ago.
Feeling immense pressure, the young woman abruptly quit just weeks into her job, and later filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Although she left her job in March 2023 and the complaint was filed just weeks later, Vereb managed to stay in his position until September of that year, even weeks after the Governor’s Office settled the matter out of court for $295,000.
The Governor’s Office has never answered why Vereb managed to keep his position for so long except to tell The New York Times — at a moment when Shapiro was under consideration to be Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidate — that he did not know of the allegations against Vereb until many months later.
Seeking to understand how Vereb stayed in his position, and also to try and understand the thoroughness of any investigation into the matter, Broad + Liberty filed two extensive Right to Know Law requests, the first in November 2023, and a second in March 2024.
The March request asked for all emails for the former deputy for essentially her last week in the job, “March 2, 2023, to and including March 8, 2023.” When those and other emails were not produced, Broad + Liberty elevated the matter to court, essentially arguing that it was impossible for there to be no email traffic in the deputy’s email account for that time.
In a February hearing in Commonwealth Court, an attorney for the governor said, “What the affirmation [denying the records] says is that the Office of [the] Governor no longer possesses the records of this employee who was – who left commonwealth employment I think about a year to a year and a half before this Right to Know Law request came in,” attorney Thomas Howell said, making an incorrect calculation of the lapsed time.
“That, frankly, should not be surprising that an account of a departed employee would be disposed of in accordance with the records retention schedules. Those retention schedules are public, and they establish that, you know, your general emails are deleted as soon as they’re no longer necessary.”
Based on that remarkable courtroom disclosure, this outlet published a story on the revelation that the accuser’s email account had been completely deleted, then filed multiple follow-up Right to Know requests to test Howell’s assertion.
The results of those requests are now in and have only created more questions.In addition, a new response from the governor’s spokesperson now indicates that the Governor’s Office was already in settlement negotiations by the time Shapiro supposedly learned of the accusations against Vereb — and it still leaves about a three-week gap from when the governor supposedly learned of the matter and when Vereb resigned.
When did the governor know?
In August 2024, Bonder told The New York Times that Shapiro “‘was not aware of the complaint or investigation until months after the complaint was filed.’”
Bonder gave no additional relevant facts towards that end for this article, except for the notable disclosure that, according to Bonder, settlement negotiations were already underway before Shapiro even knew what was going on.
“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,” Bonder said. “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.
“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. Gov. Shapiro has no tolerance for harassment in the workplace, or anywhere else,” Bonder concluded.
Broad + Liberty asked who specifically in the chain of command erred by keeping the information from the governor. Bonder did not answer that question.
Documents previously obtained show the out-of-court settlement was signed over a one-week period stretching from the last days of August to the first few days of September. Negotiations certainly would have had to have begun days before the document was first signed in late August. Vereb did not resign until Sept. 27.
Was the deletion of emails just routine housekeeping?
Howell clearly implied that the deletion of any emails for the accuser couldn’t be viewed as malicious in any way, but rather just a part of normal day-to-day operations. But RTK requests that tested that theory tell a different story.
For example, an executive deputy in the legislative affairs department, Adrienne Muller, left her position in November 2023, between one and two months after Vereb’s resignation, according to her LinkedIn resume.
In March, Broad + Liberty requested emails for Muller for the same week as was originally requested for the accuser: March 2, 2023, to and including March 8, 2023. Under Howell’s premise, Muller’s email account would also have been deleted, but those emails were provided April 23, 2025.
In effect, the Governor’s Office claimed it was normal to delete an account within a year of an employee’s departure. But Broad + Liberty was able to obtain emails for Muller — a departed employee — roughly 488 days after she severed her employment with the Governor’s Office.
This outlet also recently obtained email metadata for Vereb but not for the accuser, even though both left their posts in 2023.
“At the time that Mr. Vereb separated from Commonwealth Employment, the Office had already received multiple requests under the Right to Know Law (RTKL) that sought or implicated his email records,” the governor’s spokesman, Manuel Bonder said in an email.
“In accordance with agency procedures, those records were retained to ensure that those pending RTKL requests would be appropriately addressed. Litigation and additional requests implicating those same records continue; therefore, the Office still possesses Mr. Vereb’s relevant email records. No such requests required the continued retention of [the accuser’s] emails and as of the date of your March 8 request for those emails – which came in more than one year after she left employment – they had been addressed in accordance with Commonwealth policies and practices,” Bonder said.
Bonder said there were no RTK requests for the accuser’s email until Broad + Liberty’s request of March 2024, while saying there were “multiple” RTK’s for Muller’s emails, which is why her account was kept. Searching a previously obtained RTK log, Broad + Liberty was able to locate one RTK for some of Muller’s emails about the time she left office, and a couple of others that came in over the next few months of 2024.
Despite the Governor’s Office insisting that the accuser’s emails were handled in accordance with policy, the retention schedule in force at the time requires retention of emails from the Office of Legislative Affairs — where she worked — for a minimum of two years or until the end of the legislative session, whichever is longer. Her emails were sought just one year after she left.
Nowhere in Bonder’s response did he point to any portion of the retention schedule that would support his claims. Bonder also did not respond to a follow-up question asking when the accuser’s email account was deleted.
Adding even more complexity to the matter is the obvious fact that the accuser launched legal action against the Governor’s Office, which theoretically should have resulted in litigation holds. Broad + Liberty has a pending RTK on that matter.
Conflicting and missing metadata
Email metadata provided in response to RTK requests further underscore the question of why some email data continues to exist for departed employees while the data for the accuser’s email is missing.
In the last month, Broad + Liberty obtained metadata for the first half of March for Vereb, even though he left 18 months ago. But the Governor’s Office said it had no metadata at all for the accuser’s account — even from the same period.
Additionally, as part of the appeals process of the first extensive RTK filed with the Governor’s Office in 2023, the office produced a privilege log. A privilege log is supposed to give a court (or, in this case, the OOR) a thumbnail sketch of the documents being withheld without giving away the core content of the document.
In the log obtained in 2024, the Governor’s Office identified at least two emails to Vereb sent on March 8, 2023, that do not appear anywhere on the metadata log.
“As described in the Office’s response, the Office withheld or redacted records or portions of records that are exempt from access under the RTKL. Where email ‘metadata’ is exempt, it has similarly been redacted or withheld from access,” Bonder said. “The entries that you reference are exempt from access under the RTKL.”
It’s unclear why the office removed those entries entirely instead of merely redacting all relevant fields, which it did in some instances of the responsive document.
Did the governor’s office abide by retention schedules?
After Broad + Liberty published the original story about the deletion of the accuser’s emails, reporter Ford Turner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked Shapiro about the story at a press conference.
“Last I checked you wrote for the Post-Gazette, so it’s strange you’d be citing some other news source, but I didn’t read the story and I’m confident my administration follows all document retention policies,” Shapiro said.
Little evidence supports the governor’s claim.
At the most granular level, an office or department should ideally have what’s called an “Agency File Plan” which is a playbook that shows the office how to deal with and execute its document retention requirements.
A video from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which has responsibility for setting retention schedules, says an agency file plan defines “what each record’s retention is, its location, the person responsible for them, and what to do with them when retention ends… This is a useful guide for office staff when they need to locate records… and to help staff know when records should be gotten rid of when retention ends.”
Broad + Liberty requested a copy of all Agency File Plans in use at any time since 2020. The Governor’s Office said it had no responsive documents.
Although maintaining an Agency File Plan is considered best practice and not legally required, the governor’s open-records attorney referred us to a retention schedule promulgated in 2018, saying, “Please note that the records retention schedule is the retention plan under which the Office operates.”
“[W]hile agency file plans can be useful for agencies that directly administer large programs, and correspondingly administer many records (for example, unemployment records, public benefit applications and files, environmental permit applications and files, etc.), the ‘file plan’ is not always particularly useful in small agencies like the Office of the Governor,” Bonder said.
The first item on the first page of the retention schedule suggests “executive level documentation of Office activities” which “[m]ay include correspondence” should be retained for four years.
Another item on the retention schedule deals specifically with the governor’s Office of Legislative Affairs in which the accuser worked. It says administrative files — which could potentially be applicable to the accuser’s emails — should be retained for two years or until the end of the relevant legislative session, which would have been at the close of 2023. It’s not clear which of those guidelines would be supreme.
The Governor’s Office, however, has never given an indication of exactly when the accuser’s email account was deleted. Unless the entirety of her communications during that period was limited to routine scheduling or administrative minutiae — highly unlikely for a deputy in the legislative affairs office — those records should have been retained under classifications such as “Administrative Correspondence,” “Policy Research Files,” and “Legislative Affairs Files.”
The administration’s argument that only active RTK requests trigger preservation obligations fundamentally misrepresents the purpose of a retention schedule, which requires routine preservation of records based on content and function — not whether the public has yet requested them.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is now claiming that after his Secretary of Legislative Affairs had been accused by a subordinate of sexual misconduct and harassment in the workplace in 2023, he did not find out about either the accusations or the resulting investigation until “months after” the events.
The new revelation, stemming from a statement made by Shapiro’s spokesperson to the New York Times, raises a fresh set of questions, especially given that the governor met with a number of female state senators soon after news of the scandal broke to reassure them that his office took workplace sexual harassment seriously.
Two Republican state senators reacted to the new line of defense with astonishment, essentially saying the argument was hard if not impossible to believe. Meanwhile, a request for comment was not returned from numerous female Democratic senators who had expressed concern with Shapiro’s office had handled the issue.
The original matter dates back to the earliest weeks of the Shapiro administration — nearly all of February and the first week of March 2023.
At that time, a young woman went to work in the Governor’s Office of Legislative Affairs, headed up by Shapiro’s long-time ally, Mike Vereb, a Republican. Shapiro’s administration was just being formed, so new offices were coming together, new working relationships were being formed.
But on March 7, the woman abruptly resigned. She later wrote a highly detailed, eleven-page “interview statement” in which she alleged Vereb had initially been controlling and possessive, but those behaviors later became more aggressive. At one point, the accuser says Vereb made sexually explicit remarks about the two of them entering a physical relationship. The “interview statement” was signed on March 31, 2023, and then formed the basis of a complaint to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which adjudicates such matters.
Broad + Liberty was first to break news of allegations against Vereb on Sept. 28, 2023, one day after Vereb resigned. “Given the 200+ days between the [accuser’s] departure in March and Vereb’s resignation on Wednesday, the affair raises questions for the first-term governor about the degree to which Gov. Shapiro believed Vereb over the accuser and his willingness to risk keeping a potential liability on staff,” Broad + Liberty wrote at the time.
Now Shapiro is claiming he was unaware.
The key passage from the Times article authored by Sharon LaFraniere, says: “In a statement on Friday night, Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Mr. Shapiro, said the governor ‘was not aware of the complaint or investigation until months after the complaint was filed.’ Mr. Shapiro should have been notified of the allegations sooner, Mr. Bonder said, and he has now ordered that he be immediately informed of any such complaint against a senior staff or cabinet member.”
Although the motive behind the new statement is not completely clear, it seems reasonable to think Shapiro is responding to criticisms of how long Vereb continued to linger in his job after the allegations were made.
However, certain elements of the timeline can be gleaned from different sources which either cast doubt on Shaprio’s new account, or would otherwise seem to implicate members of his top staff of extreme negligence, none of which would reflect well on the Shapiro administration.
First, according to the accuser’s account, she levied her accusations against Vereb on March 6, 2023, in a meeting with her superior, Adrienne Muller, Vereb’s executive deputy secretary of legislative affairs, as well as Darice Mayhew, the governor’s director of administration.
Early the next morning on March 7, 2022, an email went out to certain members of Shapiro’s staff saying that the accuser had just quit.
Then 2:34 p.m. the same day, an email was circulated discussing “internal personnel matters[.]” That email included both Executive Deputy Chief of Staff Larry Halisham, and Mayhew, according to a document log obtained by Broad + Liberty.
Having the executive deputy chief of staff looped in on the accuser’s departure so quickly would seem to get the matter placed close to the governor, unless Halisham’s underlings were keeping the core matter from him.
The accuser signed her complaint to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission on May 26, 2023, and the complaint also says a simultaneous filing was made with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Either of those actions should have triggered the governor’s notice.
Finally, documents show the $295,000 out-of-court settlement between the accuser and Shapiro’s administration was finalized on Sept. 5, 2023, when the mediator signed the agreement. Shapiro’s attorneys signed the agreement on Sept. 1. Negotiations would have taken place for days if not weeks before the agreement could be finalized.
Shapiro had to have known about the allegations by this time, or else his office was somehow able to execute a $295,000 settlement without the governor’s knowledge — especially because about $45,000 of the settlement had to come from somewhere in the governor’s own office funds. Yet Vereb remained in office for another three to four weeks after the settlement was signed.
Broad + Liberty emailed a request for comment to Democratic Senators Katie Muth (Montgomery), Lisa Boscola (Lehigh/Northampton), Amanda Cappelletti (Delaware/Montgomery), Judith Schwank (Berks), and Christine Tartaglione (Philadelphia). In an effort to make sure that request for comment was not missed, Broad + Liberty also included the press secretary for the Democratic Senate Caucus, and texted that press secretary as well. None of those parties responded.
The request for comment was sent to those senators in particular because they were named as having participated in a conference with Shapiro about a week after Vereb’s departure to discuss concerns about how the matter had been handled.
“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 Philadelphia Inquirerreported. “Some left the hour-long, closed-door meeting visibly frustrated, and one senator later said she still had ‘unanswered questions.’”
The Pennsylvania Senate’s top-ranking officer, Senate President Pro Tem Kim Ward (Westmoreland) provided unvarnished criticisms in the wake of the “didn’t know” line of defense from Shapiro and his press secretary.
“It is unimaginable that Gov. Josh Shapiro had no knowledge of the sexual harassment incidents taking place in his own office. Let’s be clear — there were not one but two cabinet level secretaries, who are direct reports to Shapiro named in this sexual harassment matter. One stepped down on his own and the other remains in his powerful advisory role to Shapiro to this day,” Sen. Ward said, referring to Akbar Hossain, Shapiro’s secretary of policy and planning.
The accuser’s complaint said Hossain made sexually inappropriate remarks suggesting the accuser was already in a physical relationship with Vereb. It’s not currently clear the degree to which these allegations have been addressed.
“It is becoming apparent that any attention Shapiro or his staff gave this matter was protective to cover their office. Shapiro has had every opportunity to step up and do the right thing and he has failed every time,” Ward added. “Leadership and culture start at the top. Shapiro’s excuse that he didn’t know until months after two of his top advisors were named in a sexual harassment complaint by an employee in his own office is simply not believable.”
“Leadership and culture start at the top. Shapiro’s excuse that he didn’t know until months after two of his top advisors were named in a sexual harassment complaint by an employee in his own office is simply not believable.”
Senate President Pro Tem Kim Ward
Senator Kristen Phillips-Hill (R – York) was also highly critical given the new remarks by Bonder.
“More than a year later, the sexual harassment incident involving Gov. Shapiro’s inner circle remains unresolved. Worse yet and with each inquiry, we uncover more evidence that a ‘thorough investigation’ was never completed. It’s clear Gov. Shapiro’s words and actions don’t match as demonstrated by the timeline of emails and data. Equally disturbing in this matter is the other cabinet secretary named in the claim remains a direct report to Shapiro to this day, and there is no evidence that his actions were ever addressed,” Phillips-Hill said.
“I know the governor has his eyes set on the Naval Observatory (the Vice President’s official residence) but perhaps he could learn from someone who once served as Vice President. Harry Truman had a slogan on his desk that read, ‘The buck stops here.’ Under the Shapiro Administration, words get broken and blame gets passed. The hypocrisy of claiming to protect victims of sexual harassment, while his administration quickly and quietly hands out NDAs should not be lost on anyone. It’s a pattern of behavior that needs to be remedied through bipartisan legislation because Gov. Shapiro can’t lead the effort.”
“Either 1) he has no idea what goes on in his own inner circle, and office suite; or, 2) his top staff, including his Chief of Staff, keeps him in a “good news only” bubble for whatever reason; or 3) this statement has ZERO credibility,” Pascal posted on X yesterday.
“Also, this ‘statement’ [by Bonder] is incredibly offensive in that it assumes that we, the public, and also those of us who know all of these players, are just stupid or will drink the kool-aid. It’s offensive and insulting,” Pascal added.
In addition to representing the accuser, Pascal is the chair of Armstrong County Democratic Committee, and a member of the PA Democratic Party Executive Committee.
Requests for comment to Vereb were not returned or were unsuccessful.
A Broad + Liberty report on Friday raised questions about the thoroughness of any misconduct investigation into Vereb. The report provided documents showing the governor’s office may have provided legal advice to Vereb at a time when he should have been under investigation.
The report also showed that in response to a Right to Know request for certain documents such as a letter or email informing Vereb that he was under investigation, the governor’s office said no such documents exist.
A document obtained by Broad + Liberty suggests that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office may have been providing legal advice to then-Secretary of Legislative Affairs Mike Vereb while simultaneously investigating Vereb for workplace harassment claims made by one of his subordinates in March 2023.
If such advice took place, it would create an enormous conflict of interest that would severely undermine Gov. Shapiro’s (D) claims that his office had conducted an above-reproach investigation into the accusations made against Vereb that month.
The Vereb scandal is viewed as one of the primary weaknesses in Shapiro’s positioning to possibly be elevated to Vice President Kamala Harris’ soon-to-be presidential ticket.
Vereb, a Montgomery County Republican who also has a long history with Shapiro, abruptly resigned on Sept. 27 last year. The following day, Broad + Libertybroke the news that Vereb’s departure was linked to workplace harassment allegations made months before by a female deputy who worked in Vereb’s office but lasted only a month before resigning.
That woman, who is not named in this article because she is possibly the victim of harassment and sexual assault, filed a lengthy, detailed complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The matter was later settled out of court for $295,000.
The documents obtained by Broad + Liberty were produced as a byproduct of a Right to Know Law (RTK) request submitted in December while following up on lingering questions from the original reporting.
After the governor’s office largely denied the request, Broad + Liberty appealed the denial to the Office of Open Records. During that appeal, the governor’s office produced an exemption log for many of the documents it hoped to avoid having to turn over.
One document described by the log was an email forwarded from Christina Palmer, a senior legal analyst in the governor’s office of general counsel, to Vereb. The log described it as an “email forwarding legal advice.” The log also indicates the email had two attachments which the governor’s office wanted to withhold because they contained “attorney client or work product” as well as “internal, predecisional deliberations.”
The OOR’s Final Determination, issued June 14, 2024, allowed the governor’s office to withhold those documents and many more.
“Without knowing more, it certainly appears to be a blatant conflict of interest,” said Charlie Gerow, a longtime Republican consultant who is also an attorney. “How you can investigate somebody while simultaneously providing legal counsel to them is a huge question mark.”
Vereb, reached by text message Friday afternoon, declined to comment.
Screenshot of the privilege log
After the OOR’s Final Determination, the governor’s office only produced three pages of other documents. Broad + Liberty is appealing the matter to Commonwealth Court in the hopes of providing more details about the nature and scope of the investigation to the public.
The governor’s office invoked the appeal when approached for comment on this story.
“Because you have filed an appeal in this Right to Know Law matter, and it therefore remains in litigation, we cannot provide comment on that issue,” said Manuel Bonder, Shapiro’s spokesperson.
“Additionally, [the Office of General Counsel] represents the Office of the Governor and executive agencies, and not individual officials in their personal capacities,” Bonder added.
Other elements of the Right to Know, and the subsequent response from Shapiro’s office, raise other serious questions.
Broad + Liberty’s request asked for “Any email from any person in the office of Gov[ernor] Josh Shapiro, to Mike Vereb, from the dates of March 1, 2023, to and including May 1, 2023, that notifies Mike Vereb of an investigation into his workplace conduct.”
It also asked for any email sent or received by Mike Vereb, “from the dates of Feb[ruary] 24, 2023, to and including June 1, 2023, mentioning an investigation into Mike Vereb’s workplace conduct.”
To both of these points, the governor’s open records officer said no such records existed, which raises questions about the robustness of any investigation.
At an earlier point in the RTK appeal, the OOR bluntly asked the governor’s office “whether a noncriminal investigation was actually performed into this matter” by the governor’s office.
The office responded by generally arguing that answering that question would violate the protections afforded by the Right to Know Law when it allows documents related to noncriminal investigations to be withheld.
“If such investigation occurred, those records exist and are exempt – if no such investigation occurred, no such records exist,” the governor’s open records officer wrote, without ever providing a “yes” or “no” answer to the question.
Some in Harrisburg already suspected that this investigation was lackluster — or even nonexistent.
“It would not be any surprise to me to find out there was zero investigation done,” said Rep. Abby Major, a Republican state representative from Armstrong and Westmoreland counties in western Pennsylvania. “I have said from the beginning that if the [accusing] documents hadn’t been leaked that [the governor’s office] would have paid the settlement, had [the accuser] sign the non-disclosure agreement, and Mike Vereb would still be working in that office.”
Bonder refuted that notion.
“[A]s we have repeatedly stated, the Commonwealth maintains an independent, robust, professional process to allow people to come forward safely, as was the case in this matter,” Bonder said. “Through that process, every investigation is conducted independently from the Governor’s Office. Your assumptions to the contrary are false and unfounded.”
The open records office did determine that a few of the documents listed in the privilege index were related to a noncriminal investigation. But it should also be noted that when the governor’s office invoked the noncriminal investigation exemption to withhold a batch of documents, the OOR ruled against the governor’s office, meaning those documents had to be handed over. However, none of the documents that were turned over resembled anything that would have matched that part of the records request.
Rep. Major had been a confidant to the accuser in the months following her departure from the legislative affairs office, in no small part because Major herself claimed to have been a victim of sexual harassment while working at the Capitol.
After the Vereb scandal originally broke, Shapiro was able to avoid discussing the matter for a whole week until reporters pressed the issue at a live event in Bethlehem.
“I can’t comment on any specifics, and that’s really designed to be able to protect all parties involved in any matter,” Shapiro was quoted as saying. “I can tell you, [Vereb] no longer works for my administration.”
But Shapiro’s use of Vereb’s departure as a shield is undercut by the fact that Vereb continued in his role for at least six months after the accuser’s complaints were made known to his administration. He was fired only when the story was about to become public.
At the same press conference, Shapiro stirred even more controversy. When asked about complaints from Republican Senate President Kim Ward (Westmoreland County) and other women in the General Assembly that the Vereb matter had not been handled promptly, Shapiro responded, “First off, I’d just say ‘consider the source,’ when it comes to the president Pro Tem.”
Ward, the first female Senate Pro Tem and Senate Majority leader in Pennsylvania history, unleashed new criticisms on Shapiro after being shown the documents in this report, saying that the entire episode had shown the governor didn’t take women seriously.
“It is clear Shapiro’s hubris, ambition, and desire for power of a higher office has blinded his judgment. Shapiro boldly permitted sexual harassment matters to go unaddressed for months despite having every opportunity to meet his moral obligation to protect people,” Ward told Broad + Liberty.
“Instead, he allowed a woman and the women around her to live in fear while obscuring the truth and putting his staff in a culpable position despite having every opportunity to correct course,” Ward continued. “The truth of one’s character is how you act when no one is watching. If Shapiro allowed this toxic situation to play out publicly, it’s difficult to imagine what we don’t know. It’s appalling, infuriating, and disgusting knowing that Shapiro deemed this behavior acceptable. More disturbing is how Shapiro put his personal political ambitions ahead of doing the right thing. By doing so, Shapiro displayed a general disrespect for women.”
As Shapiro has increasingly defended his administration in the runup to Harris officially naming a running mate on Tuesday, the governor has made reference to his time as attorney general when he successfully prosecuted numerous priests within the Catholic Church.
Some of Shapiro’s critics, however, say it’s ironic that Shapiro denounced the church’s use of nondisclosure agreements to hide its abuse, but now similarly uses an NDA to divulge precious few details about the Vereb affair.
The intense spotlight that comes with a presidential campaign means both Shapiro and Vereb have faced additional scrutiny.
ABC News reported late Friday that a woman came forward accusing Vereb of invoking Shapiro’s power while threatening the woman in a 2018 incident.
Vereb “allegedly invoked Shapiro’s name on the call, telling the woman that ‘by the time he and Josh were done with me, I would be worse than nothing,’ said the woman, who requested that her name not be published,” the ABC News report said.
The report also noted that, “There is no evidence that Shapiro, who was at the time Pennsylvania’s state attorney general, was aware of Vereb’s allegedly threatening call.”
The alleged victim emailed Democratic and Republican leaders in the General Assembly in October last year in the wake of Vereb’s September resignation, the ABC report noted.
Keeping Vereb on for months was also jarring because, at that time, Harrisburg had just witnessed another sexual misconduct scandal — one in which it later was revealed the accusations had been known for years.
Broad + Liberty was first to report that State Rep. Mike Zabel was the individual referred to by an SEIU lobbyist in January of 2023. The lobbyist made her allegations in a public forum but did not name Zabel.
Zabel, a Delaware County Democrat, resigned days later, but only after Rep. Major went public with accusations that Zabel had propositioned her at a bar, and then later followed her to her car while she was alone.
Zabel announced on March 8, 2023, that he would leave his seat on March 16.
Vereb’s accuser resigned her position on March 7, 2023.
Spotlight PA later broke that “Pennsylvania House Democrats for the first time have acknowledged that the caucus knew about a sexual harassment allegation against state Rep. Mike Zabel (D., Delaware) in 2019, several years before similar claims became public[.]”
Some legislation is pending that would attempt to deal with how misconduct allegations are handled in political offices.
Vereb’s accuser told Penn Capital-Star reporter Kim Lyons about one idea she’s particularly hopeful for.
“I am most interested in ensuring third independent, unbiased parties are involved in investigations, which is being championed by Senators [Kim] Ward and [Maria] Collett, a true bipartisan effort of women,” she said.
A women’s organization is asking Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign to consider Gov. Josh Shapiro’s record on sexual harassment as she looks for a running mate.
The statement of the nonpartisan National Women’s Defense League (NWDL) comes as the freshman Pennsylvania governor is reportedly on the vice presidential shortlist.
Harris is expected to be formally chosen as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee via online voting over the weekend.
Last fall, Shapiro’s office agreed to pay a woman employee $295,000 to settle her complaint that his former chief of staff, Mike Vereb, made inappropriate comments to her. The woman signed a nondisclosure agreement that barred both sides from discussing the case.
Vereb, a former state representative, had stepped down from his position in the Shapiro administration. But it was discovered the woman made her allegations months before Vereb resigned.
At the time, state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) said, “The lack of transparency and accountability surrounding this process is very disturbing, and, unfortunately, the taxpayers are footing the bill. Harassment of any kind in the workplace is never acceptable, and when these incidents occur at the highest levels of state government, the public deserves answers. We are currently reevaluating the handling of this incident, and I believe changes will be needed to ensure that victims are protected, wrongdoers are held responsible, and taxpayers are respected.”
“Gov. Shapiro’s office should have done a better job preventing the sexual harassment happening in his own office by Cabinet Secretary Mike Vereb, including protecting the survivor who bravely came forward, ensuring that any other potential survivors felt safe in speaking up, and ensuring the harasser didn’t have the opportunity to do further harm after the complaint,” said NWDL director Emma Davidson Tibbs.
“As the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party consider their options for vice presidential candidates, we urge them to consider the handling of past complaints of sexual harassment inside the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office. The American people deserve to know that, if called to a higher office, Gov. Shapiro will do more to ensure the safety and dignity of employees, volunteers and constituents in his office.”
Sexual harassment accusations against Vereb were not the only ones that came to light in Harrisburg last year.
Mike Zabel, a Democrat who was a state representative from Delaware County, also resigned under a cloud around the same time.
Zabel stepped down after fellow Rep. Abigail Major spoke out about a drunken pass Zabel allegedly made, then followed her to her car. Several other women had also claimed Zabel behaved inappropriately toward them. The scandal erupted after SEIU lobbyist Andi Perez came forward to say Zabel put his hand on her leg during a business conversation. His former campaign manager, Colleen Kennedy, also made accusations.
“Sexual harassment is especially rampant in our government and political workspaces, and we need leaders who will buck the pernicious status quo. We deserve leaders who will champion reforms that do not silence survivors, but empower and support them. We deserve leaders who will not brush sexual harassment under the rug, but will put accountability above politics. We need leaders who prioritize effective policies, protocols and culture that prevents sexual harassment and protects survivors,” said Davidson Tibbs.
“Our research indicates that there is rarely only one survivor in cases like this one. When it comes to sexual harassment, silence is not golden–it’s a red flag,” she added.
Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro said, “Gov. Shapiro has a long track record of protecting survivors and prosecuting predators – as attorney general, he exposed decades of child sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church and put those who abused children behind bars. As governor, he has repeatedly called on the Senate to send him a bill – which has already passed the House – to provide victims of sexual abuse with an opportunity to achieve justice and accountability.
“Gov. Shapiro and his administration take every allegation of discrimination and harassment extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place to thoroughly investigate all reports. Those procedures are implemented in every instance where complaints of discrimination or harassment are made and all allegations are promptly and fully investigated to ensure employees feel comfortable to report misconduct. In order to protect the privacy of every current and former commonwealth employee involved, the administration does not comment further on specific personnel matters,” he said.
The Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Harris is expected to name her vice presidential pick soon and plans a rally in Philadelphia to introduce her choice Tuesday evening.
A sexual harassment scandal gripping the Shapiro administration isn’t sitting well with some women in the Pennsylvania state Senate, starting with DelVal’s own Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery)
“Sexual harassment in the workplace can never be tolerated or accepted, especially in the highest office of our commonwealth,” she said Tuesday. “These allegations raise serious questions about the kind of workplace culture that could have turned a blind eye and enabled this kind of behavior. All victims, no matter who they are, deserve to be heard.”
At issue is the behavior of longtime Shapiro ally and close confidant Mike Vereb, forced to resign from his post as Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Secretary of Legislative Affairs. It comes after allegations by a female former deputy secretary that Vereb subjected her to unwanted sexual conversations in February and March.
Pennycuick called the allegations against Vereb “deeply troubling.”
“The people of Pennsylvania trust us to work on their behalf as public officials with integrity, respect, and with the best interest of the people we serve at the top of our mind. When this trust is betrayed, the people deserve answers.”
Pennycuick was far from alone.
“The details of the sexual harassment complaint filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission against Gov. Shapiro’s Office are appalling,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland). “Despite this being a personnel matter, the governor’s office has offered official comments and conflicting information on the issue. This not only raises concerns related to their workplace practices but also whether this matter has influenced our current unfinished budget situation and how taxpayer funds are supporting this issue.”
Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York) said, “The lack of information or even acknowledgment by Gov. Shapiro regarding the alleged sexual harassment by one of his former top officials is humiliating to women in the workplace. It sends a message to working women that they are not truly valued.
“It also raises more questions than answers for Gov. Shapiro’s administration, such as how long did Gov. Shapiro know, and have taxpayers been affected? Secrecy continues to be a trend with this administration, which required staff to sign a lengthy, three-page nondisclosure agreement during the executive branch’s transition period earlier this year. This is why we need more transparency.”
Ward, a veteran legislator, noted the alleged abuse went on far longer than it had to.
“The alleged offender remained in his influential role until he tendered his resignation, leaving the victim in an unsafe space to fend for herself, with limited options. This is unacceptable,” Ward said.
Pennycuick also noted Vereb’s lingering impact on state government long after the complaints began.
“While we cannot control the behavior of all people, we can take quick and appropriate action. In this instance, it seems that the alleged offender was permitted to stay in his role while leaving the victim vulnerable. At the same time, he continued to serve Gov. Shapiro as the lead negotiator on the budget. With this in mind, one cannot help but be concerned that the victims’ claim may not have been taken seriously or addressed in a timely manner,” Pennycuick said.
Shapiro’s office is sticking to its story.
“Although the Commonwealth does not comment on specific personnel matters, it takes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously. Robust procedures are in place for thoroughly investigating reports of discrimination and harassment – and these procedures are implemented whenever complaints of discrimination or harassment are made and provide detailed guidance to help ensure that allegations are promptly and fully investigated and that employees feel comfortable to report misconduct,” said Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro.
“These procedures expressly recognize that employees may subsequently report allegations to other entities, including the PHRC or EEOC, and that reports made to those entities are addressed in accordance with the law.”
