A 44-page Labor Department inspector general report found that former Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated agency anti-harassment rules, misused government resources, and maintained an "inappropriately close" relationship with her security detail supervisor.

The report, released this week, details how Chavez-DeRemer directed a government limousine driver to enter an Oregon strip club during a personal trip in April 2025, handed him cash from her purse, and instructed him to drop the bills one by one over a partially nude performer. The driver refused twice. Brian Sloan, the supervisor on Chavez-DeRemer's protective detail, told the driver to comply, then warned him not to discuss what happened.

The driver reported the incident to his own superior the following day. Chavez-DeRemer resigned on April 20, one day before she was scheduled to sit for an interview with OIG investigators.

Her lawyer, Nick Oberheiden, defended her on Friday. "The moot report confirms that Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any laws," he said. But the OIG's conclusions go well beyond the strip club episode, and the scope of the misconduct described in the report raises serious questions about how long this conduct was tolerated inside a Cabinet-level department.

Fifty-three interviews and 500 documents built the case

Investigators interviewed 53 current and former Labor Department employees, plus one additional federal worker, and reviewed more than 500 documents, images, and videos. Thirty-eight of those witnesses described Chavez-DeRemer's office as "toxic, intimidating and humiliating," AP News reported.

That is not a disgruntled handful. Thirty-eight witnesses, independently characterizing the same workplace in nearly identical terms, paints a picture of systemic dysfunction at the top of the department.

The OIG substantiated multiple violations beyond the strip club incident. Investigators found improper personal travel billed as government business, unauthorized drinking on federal property, misuse of employees for private errands, and failures to report gifts. Each finding represents a separate breach of the standards expected of a Cabinet secretary entrusted with public resources.

The administration has faced other internal controversies this year, including the president's public rebuke of U.S. Attorney Pirro over a separate matter. But the Chavez-DeRemer findings stand out for the sheer breadth of documented misconduct inside a single office.

Hotel records and surveillance footage traced the relationship with Sloan

The report found that Chavez-DeRemer "developed and maintained an inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship" with Sloan while he exercised supervisory and operational authority over her protective detail, the New York Post reported, citing the OIG's language directly.

Electronic hotel door lock records from two Las Vegas trips indicated the pair spent portions of overnight stays in each other's rooms. Key fob records and video footage documented Sloan's visits to Chavez-DeRemer's Washington apartment. Surveillance footage captured Sloan leaving her apartment building roughly 14 hours after arriving.

The two also traded private encrypted text messages and had what investigators described as physical familiarity and contact outside working hours. Yet the OIG explicitly stated it did not obtain enough direct evidence to establish that Chavez-DeRemer and Sloan had a romantic or sexual relationship. The report stopped short of that conclusion, but the documented pattern of overnight visits, encrypted communications, and after-hours contact left little ambiguity about the nature of the arrangement.

Sloan's role compounded the problem. He was not simply a colleague. He supervised the detail assigned to protect the secretary. When the limousine driver looked to Sloan for help during the strip club incident, Sloan sided with Chavez-DeRemer and ordered the subordinate to comply. That is a supervisor using his authority to enforce a personal demand, and then warning the subordinate to stay quiet.

Public officials who abuse the trust placed in them, whether through alleged criminal conduct or the kind of ethical rot described in this report, undermine the institutions they are supposed to lead.

Her husband was barred from the building over separate allegations

The scandal extended beyond Chavez-DeRemer herself. National Review reported that her husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, was barred from Labor Department headquarters after several women reported he was making unwanted advances. One woman filed a sexual assault report with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, which opened an investigation, though no charges were ultimately brought.

The Department of Labor's inspector general began investigating allegations in January that Chavez-DeRemer had an extramarital affair with a member of her security team. She resigned three months later, the day before investigators were set to question her under oath.

Chavez-DeRemer had previously dismissed the allegations as "attempts of distraction and attacks on her personal life." The 44-page report, built on 53 witness interviews and more than 500 pieces of documentary evidence, suggests the opposite. The findings are specific, corroborated, and damning.

Oberheiden's defense sidesteps the central findings

Oberheiden's statement, that the report "confirms" Chavez-DeRemer "did not violate any laws", frames the outcome narrowly. The OIG report is an internal agency investigation, not a criminal prosecution. Its conclusions address violations of department policy, not the criminal code. Saying no laws were broken does not address the anti-harassment violations, the misuse of government resources, the improper billing of personal travel, or the workplace culture that 38 witnesses described in near-identical terms.

The administration has dealt with a range of political headaches this year, from contested nominations to policy disputes. But the Chavez-DeRemer episode is not a policy disagreement or a political fight. It is a documented record of a Cabinet official treating government employees as personal servants, using taxpayer-funded resources for private purposes, and presiding over a workplace that dozens of employees found hostile.

The Daily Mail first detailed the strip club incident and the broader OIG findings, including the scope of witness testimony and the documentary evidence compiled by investigators.

Several open questions remain. The report does not specify the dollar value of personal travel billed to the government, the nature or value of unreported gifts, or which federal properties saw unauthorized drinking. Whether any formal disciplinary action or referral for prosecution will follow the OIG findings is also unclear. Sloan's current employment status with the department has not been disclosed.

Conservative voters who backed this administration expect accountability from public officials regardless of party. The standard does not bend because the offender once wore the right jersey.

When a Cabinet secretary orders a subordinate to pour cash over a performer in a strip club, resigns the day before her interview, and leaves behind a workplace that 38 witnesses called toxic, the facts speak for themselves. The question is whether anyone in a position to act is still listening.