A Cabinet officer appointed by President Donald Trump oversaw a “toxic, intimidating and humiliating” work environment at the Labor Department, a federal watchdog said in a report released Thursday evening.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer was the third member of Trump’s Cabinet to step down when she resigned in April after allegations of abuse of power. Trump selected Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon with unusual ties to labor unions, with the urging of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
The agency’s internal Office of Inspector General found that Chavez-DeRemer maintained an “inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship” with a bodyguard on her security detail, used government funds for personal travel and regularly drank on the job, according to a months-long investigation. The report detailed numerous occasions when Chavez-DeRemer failed to adhere to agency standards, including harassment policies.
In one episode, Chavez-DeRemer asked to visit an Oregon strip club with her security detail. Once there, she took money from her purse, handed it to her driver and instructed him to give it to a performer. When the driver resisted, the bodyguard told him to comply. Chavez-DeRemer then handed the driver more money and instructed him to drop the bills one at a time onto the partially nude woman.
The inspector general did not find direct evidence that Chavez-DeRemer and her security aide, who is not named in the report, engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship. The two refused to be interviewed in the investigation. However, investigators surveilled Chavez-DeRemer and reviewed their hotel key swipes on trips, showing evidence the two spent time together overnight.
For the investigation, the inspector general interviewed 53 current and former agency staffers, including more than three dozen who consistently described the work environment as “toxic” at the agency tasked with overseeing labor laws and workers’ rights.
Employees said Chavez-DeRemer and her staffers discussed employee performance in front of staffers, including whether they had cried. And Chavez-DeRemer and her aides not only drank during the workday, witnesses said, but pressured other employees to drink and ridiculed them for declining.
The report also describes multiple incidents when Chavez-DeRemer had employees manage her personal affairs. On one occasion, she sent her personal aide and executive assistant to her home during the workday in a Labor Department vehicle to organize her bedroom closet, hang up her laundry and dry cleaning and arrange her clothes, shoes and purses. The report includes a screenshot of a video showing the organized closet.
Chavez-DeRemer was scheduled to be interviewed by the inspector general’s office when she resigned. The report said her attorney subsequently declined to make her available for the interview. The initial complaint filed with Labor Department’s inspector general, Anthony D’Esposito, led to the firing of several top aides and surfaced sexual misconduct allegations against Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Shawn DeRemer.
Chavez-DeRemer has previously disputed the allegations through an agency spokeswoman and her lawyer, calling them “attempts of distraction and attacks on her personal life.” Asked for comment Friday, her lawyer Nick Oberheiden said: “The moot report confirms that Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any laws.”
Since leaving the administration, Chavez-DeRemer has launched American Workers First PAC. The Republican-aligned PAC has yet to provide a public report of its contributions.
Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling, who is known for his close relationship with the business community, now leads the agency. Trump officially nominated Sonderling to the Cabinet post this summer and he is awaiting Senate confirmation.
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