A former Trump Cabinet member once accused of billing taxpayers for a strip club outing she forced staffers to attend has officially been branded a workplace tyrant who reduced staffers to tears, according to a scathing federal inspector general 40-page report.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Labor Department’s inspector general, Anthony D’Esposito, has concluded former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer let her top aides abuse employees — and even boast about it afterward.
Investigators flagged six separate policy failures, ranging from “unauthorized on-the-job drinking” and undisclosed gifts to pushing staff into running her personal errands and failing to curb workplace harassment — conduct the report said was “inconsistent” with department standards, according to the Journal.
The report also found that chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy chief of staff Rebecca Wright routinely subjected employees to what investigators called “threatening, demeaning, and abusive verbal and written communication.”
Staffers described meetings with the pair as “beatdowns,” and Han allegedly threatened firings and “appeared to take satisfaction in doing so,” the Journal reported.
Investigators said Chavez-DeRemer was “seemingly aware” of the abuse yet never disciplined her aides. Witnesses said the trio would openly discuss staffers’ performance — “including whether they’d cried” — in front of colleagues.
According to the Journal, investigators said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Chavez-DeRemer’s relationship with a member of her security detail was romantic, though they documented unusually close behavior, including a shoulder rub she reportedly gave the agent and frequent off-hours texting, as Raw Story has reported.
Chavez-DeRemer resigned April 20 — a day before her scheduled IG interview — and has denied wrongdoing. Her lawyer and the Labor Department did not respond to requests for comment; attempts to reach Han and Wright were unsuccessful, the Wall Street Journal noted.
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