Former labor secretary created ‘toxic’ atmosphere, drank at work and misused funds, report says

Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated multiple department policies during her tenure, including creating a hostile work environment, using government funds for personal travel and having an inappropriate relationship with an employee, according to a department watchdog. The Labor Department inspector general’s 44-page report, released Thursday, is the culmination of an investigation that began in early January after an anonymous complaint alleging misconduct. The report also accuses other former top officials who worked with Chavez-DeRemer of multiple violations of department policy. More than three-dozen witnesses described working with Chavez-DeRemer, who led the department from March 2025 to April this year, as “toxic, intimidating and humiliating,” according to the report. The inspector general’s office, however, didn’t “determine whether the conduct described in the evidence above was sufficient to constitute unlawful discrimination, retaliation, or a hostile work environment” under federal law. The report touched on the previously reported inappropriate relationship that Chavez-DeRemer had with a member of her security detail. The inspector general said they “developed and maintained an inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship,” but that it “did not, however, obtain sufficient direct evidence to establish that the relationship was romantic or sexual.” In April 2025, the report said, Chavez-DeRemer requested an off-the-record stop during personal travel to Oregon at a place that featured “partially nude dancers” with the member of the protective detail with whom she had a relationship. The secretary asked another agent to take money from her purse and “drop the bills one by one onto the partially nude woman.” Some of the other policy violations that Chavez-DeRemer committed, according to the inspector general, included improperly combining personal and official travel, consuming and storing alcohol on federal property and accepting gifts without reporting them under ethics rules. The gifts included an alligator-hide wallet, work boots, baby gifts and cowboy hats, the report said. The inspector general also said that Chavez-DeRemer directed her employees to perform personal tasks for her, including going to her residence during work hours to organize her bedroom closet. Reached for comment, Chavez-DeRemer’s attorney, Nick Oberheiden, said in a statement, “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any law. That’s important to point out and contrast to the premature and incorrect speculation of some. Beyond this, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer has successfully pursued new projects as a private citizen.” Chavez-DeRemer resigned in April amid the allegations of misconduct. At the time, Oberheiden said the decision was “not the result of legal wrongdoings. It is a personal decision.” The Labor Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the inspector general’s findings.