Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer left behind a federal department beset by workplace complaints, questionable taxpayer-funded travel, employees assigned to personal errands, alcohol inside government offices and problems within her protective operation, according to a federal investigation that substantiated multiple violations of Labor Department policy and executive-branch ethics requirements.
The findings emerged from a months-long investigation by the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General that began after an anonymous complaint in January 2026. By the time investigators completed their work, Chavez-DeRemer had resigned, several senior officials had departed the department, and federal investigators had assembled testimony from 54 witnesses alongside more than 500 documents, photographs and videos.
The investigation substantiated misconduct involving Chavez-DeRemer across six areas of her tenure, placing conduct inside the secretary’s office, during government travel and at her private residence within the same federal inquiry.
Conditions inside the Labor Department became one of the investigation’s central concerns. Thirty-eight witnesses described an atmosphere of intimidation and humiliation in which employees faced demeaning communications, personnel problems were discussed in front of colleagues and workers became reluctant to challenge senior leadership.
Senior aides Jihun Han and Rebecca Wright were identified as participants in threatening, abusive or demeaning workplace behavior. Chavez-DeRemer was aware of the conduct and failed to take adequate corrective action, according to investigators, resulting in a substantiated violation of the department’s anti-harassment requirements.
The problems did not remain inside Labor Department headquarters.
During personal travel to Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer requested an unrecorded stop at an establishment featuring partially nude dancers while accompanied by members of her government protective detail. A federal driver entered the establishment with her and was instructed to distribute Chavez-DeRemer’s money to a performer despite objecting to the request. The conduct involving Chavez-DeRemer and a protective-detail supervisor was found to violate Labor Department anti-harassment policy.
Federal money also became entangled with Chavez-DeRemer’s personal travel.
At least 13 trips examined by investigators involved destinations where Chavez-DeRemer visited relatives or other personal residences. Five additional trips took her to Las Vegas. Eleven witnesses described official government engagements being incorporated into itineraries involving destinations Chavez-DeRemer had wanted to visit for personal reasons.
Personal activity during official government travel is not automatically prohibited. The violations identified in the investigation involved circumstances in which personal destinations or activities preceded the addition or reassignment of government business, allowing expenses associated with the travel to be paid with federal funds.
A November 2025 trip to Palm Beach, Florida, illustrates the problem documented by investigators. Travel that initially appeared personal during the federal government shutdown was subsequently classified as official after a meeting was added to the itinerary. Chavez-DeRemer received $2,092.63 in federal reimbursement covering airfare, lodging, taxes, meals and incidental expenses. Investigators could not locate documentation establishing required approval or justification for elevated lodging costs.
Another trip in August 2025 took Chavez-DeRemer to Spokane, Washington. Government travel records identified an airport, hotel and golf course during a portion of the trip for which investigators found no corresponding official engagement. Federal reimbursement nevertheless covered lodging above the applicable government rate along with per diem expenses.
While questions accumulated around travel, federal employees were also spending government work hours handling the secretary’s private affairs.
Labor Department personnel traveled to Chavez-DeRemer’s residence using government transportation and organized clothing, shoes and purses inside her bedroom closet. Employees retrieved personal packages from her residential mailroom, purchased picture frames, holiday ornaments and gifts, bought alcohol and wine, supervised movers, relayed household instructions and assisted with residential cleaning arrangements.
The employees were performing those assignments while being paid for federal work. Investigators determined that Chavez-DeRemer’s use of subordinates for personal tasks violated executive-branch ethics standards prohibiting officials from directing government employees to perform private activities during official duty hours.
Alcohol was simultaneously being consumed inside Labor Department offices without the written authorization required by department policy.
Witnesses described Chavez-DeRemer, Han and Wright drinking inside the secretary’s study during working hours. Some employees reported being pressured or ridiculed when they declined to participate. Surveillance and documentary evidence supported portions of those accounts, and investigators observed bottles of alcohol in offices and spaces controlled by senior officials. A search of department records produced no written authorization permitting the consumption.
Federal gift rules produced another substantiated violation. Items received by or for Chavez-DeRemer were missing from required departmental gift records, including an alligator-hide wallet valued at approximately $200, cowboy hats, work boots, a scarf and baby gifts. Investigators also identified rodeo tickets worth approximately $100 each provided by a lobbyist during a Las Vegas trip.
Separate from the financial and workplace findings, investigators uncovered problems surrounding Chavez-DeRemer’s relationship with a senior official assigned to her protective detail.
The relationship became sufficiently close that investigators concluded professional boundaries and federal impartiality requirements had been compromised. Electronic communications, surveillance footage, witness testimony and access records were examined as investigators reconstructed interactions between the secretary and the protective official.
Operational problems accompanied that relationship. The agent released or repositioned other members of the security team, failed on occasions to communicate Chavez-DeRemer’s location and sometimes remained as the only agent protecting her. During a December 2025 Las Vegas trip, another agent was dismissed while the official remained alone with Chavez-DeRemer for approximately three hours without providing the rest of the detail with location or status information.
The investigation did not establish that the two were involved romantically or sexually. The evidence supported a finding of an inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship, along with violations involving preferential treatment and impartiality, but investigators determined there was insufficient direct evidence to characterize it as an affair.
Chavez-DeRemer never sat for the interview investigators had scheduled with her.
She was expected to appear before the Inspector General on April 21, 2026. She resigned one day earlier, and her attorney subsequently declined to make her available. The senior protective official had resigned in March. Han and Wright were terminated earlier that month, and the department’s director of advance was terminated later in March. Their departures occurred before the investigation was completed.
The federal inquiry ultimately left the Labor Department confronting problems extending well beyond the actions of one departing Cabinet secretary. Recommendations called for independent audits of senior officials’ travel, tighter comparisons between official schedules and federal reimbursement claims, department-wide standards governing workplace relationships, annual training, stronger whistleblower protections and changes to the structure governing the secretary’s protective operation.
By the time the investigation closed, the officials at the center of the inquiry were already gone. The government records, employee testimony, travel documentation and surveillance evidence remained, producing a 44-page federal accounting of how workplace authority, taxpayer resources and executive-branch ethics requirements were handled inside the nation’s Labor Department during Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure.