The former U.S. Department of Labor secretary drank on the job, created a toxic work environment, charged the government for personal travel, and accepted gifts without properly reporting them, according to a federal watchdog investigation released Sept. 3.
At one point, Lori Chavez-DeRemer and an unnamed special agent pressured a member of her security detail to enter a strip club and "drop bills one-by-one" onto a performer's body, the report said.
Chavez-DeRemer, who started the role in 2025, resigned from her post on April 20, 2026, one day before the Office of the Inspector General was scheduled to interview her as part of the investigation, the report said.
At the time, Chavez-DeRemer was the third woman in a row to leave a Cabinet position.
She said in an announcement that she was leaving for the private sector but did not provide more details.
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.
Two of those 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.
Attempts to reach Chavez-DeRemer for this story were unsuccessful.
Strip club incident
The report detailed an incident at a strip club in April 2025, just one month after she started the job, on a personal trip that Chavez-DeRemer took to Oregon.
Chavez-DeRemer requested an off-the-record stop at "an establishment featuring partially nude dancers," according to the report. 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, according to the report.
The security officer sought guidance from another agent, who told him to comply, the report said. “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 report said. “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. But there was not sufficient evidence to say it was a romantic or sexual relationship, according to the report.
Employee appearances
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.'"
The deputy chief of staff, the report said, made comments "related to employees' appearance, race and sexual orientation." At one point, she relocated an employee's desk because she did not want a "fat person" visible in the front office and made derogatory comments about another person's hygiene, the report said.
Witnesses said 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."
Personal travel
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. Additionally, 11 witnesses said 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 DOL."
The 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.
Alcohol use
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," the report said.
Investigators said they personally observed bottles of alcohol in the three officials' offices. Witnesses who attended those meetings who declined to drink told investigators that the three would pressure them to drink or ridicule them for not doing so.
Keith Sonderling, a Senate-confirmed deputy secretary of labor who is not alleged in the report to have been part of any wrongdoing, is currently running the Department of Labor as acting secretary.
Chavez-DeRemer is currently listed as a staff member for a communication and public affairs firm.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Labor secretary drank at work, brought staff to strip club, watchdog says
