A federal watchdog investigation released on September 3, 2026, has leveled serious allegations against former U.S. Department of Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The report claims that Chavez-DeRemer, who assumed her cabinet role in 2025, engaged in on-the-job alcohol consumption, fostered a toxic work environment, improperly charged the government for personal travel, and accepted gifts without properly reporting them. The investigation focused on Chavez-DeRemer and four other high-ranking employees: her chief of staff, a deputy chief of staff, an unnamed special agent in charge, and an unnamed director.
The report detailed a specific incident at a strip club in April 2025, just one month after she started the job, during a personal trip Chavez-DeRemer took to Oregon. According to the findings, Chavez-DeRemer requested an off-the-record stop at an establishment featuring partially nude dancers. She took money from her purse, gave it to the assistant special agent in charge of her security, and allegedly directed him to give it to the performer. When the security officer sought guidance from another agent, he was told to comply. The report states that Chavez-DeRemer then took additional money from her purse and asked the agent to drop the bills one by one onto the partially nude woman. The agent complied against his wishes. The inspector general concluded that Chavez-DeRemer developed and maintained an inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship with the same special agent who told the other to comply, though there was not sufficient evidence to say it was a romantic or sexual relationship.
The investigation also highlighted a pattern of personnel and management issues. The report says Chavez-DeRemer, in consultation with the deputy chief of staff, chose to exclude agents from her detail based on her perception that they were too old, physically unfit, overly rule-bound, or too MAGA. Witnesses further alleged that the deputy chief of staff advised an employee not to cut her hair too short to avoid turning into a lesbian, and advised an employee not to use the employer-provided daycare center based on the race of the daycare staff.
Regarding financial conduct, the report concluded that Chavez-DeRemer and the deputy chief of staff improperly combined personal and official travel in violation of Department of Labor policy and federal regulations. Eleven witnesses stated that the deputy chief of staff added official engagements to itineraries involving destinations Chavez-DeRemer intended to visit for personal reasons, allowing associated travel costs to be paid by the Department of Labor. These destinations included Portland, Oregon, where Chavez-DeRemer had a home; Palm Beach, Florida, where the pair attended an America First Policy Institute gala; Spokane, Washington, near an Idaho golf course; and Las Vegas, where she attended a rodeo with tickets from a lobbyist.
Witnesses told investigators that Chavez-DeRemer, her chief of staff, and the deputy chief of staff regularly drank alcohol in Chavez-DeRemer's study during official duty hours. Investigators reported that they personally observed bottles of alcohol in the three officials' offices. Witnesses who attended those meetings and declined to drink told investigators that the three would pressure them to drink or ridicule them for not doing so. The consequences for the staff were significant: two employees were placed on administrative leave in January and fired in March; a third was placed on leave and resigned in March; and the fourth was fired in March. Chavez-DeRemer resigned on April 20, 2026, one day before the Office of the Inspector General was scheduled to interview her. At the time, she was the third woman in a row to leave a Cabinet position, stating she was leaving for the private sector. Keith Sonderling, a Senate-confirmed deputy secretary of labor, is currently running the Department of Labor as acting secretary, while Chavez-DeRemer is currently listed as a staff member for a communication and public affairs firm.
