As U.S. secretary of labor, former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer visited a Portland strip club and instructed her driver to drop dollar bills onto a half-naked dancer, according to the findings of a 44-page report released Sept. 3 by the Department of Labor's Office of the Inspector General.
Investigators also found Chavez-DeRemer harassed employees, carried on an unprofessional relationship with a member of her security detail, consumed alcohol on federal property, conducted personal travel at taxpayer expense, directed government employees to perform personal tasks and failed to report gifts.
Chavez-DeRemer was secretary of labor from March 11, 2025 until she resigned on April 11. Formerly the mayor of Happy Valley, Chavez-DeRemer represented Oregon's 5th Congressional District, which includes Stayton and a large portion of Linn County, from 2023 to 2025.
She recently was hired for a position as a senior advisor for communications firm Think Big to advocate for data centers.
Chavez-DeRemer resigned as secretary of labor two days before she was scheduled to be interviewed for the report and did not talk to investigators. Her chief of staff, Jihun Han, and deputy chief of staff, Rebecca Wright, were fired and declined to be interviewed for the investigation.
Chavez-DeRemer has not responded to the Statesman Journal's requests for comment.
The wide-ranging report detailed multiple instances of misconduct by Chavez-DeRemer and her staff members.
According to the report, 38 witnesses described the work environment at the Department of Labor as toxic, intimidating and humiliating while Chavez-DeRemer was secretary.
They described to investigators how Chavez-DeRemer and staffers discussed employee performance in the presence of other staff and whether employees cried during meetings.
After an article about Chavez-DeRemer's behavior was published in the New York Post on Jan. 9, Chavez-DeRemer directed Han and Wright to identify employees who provided information to the media, the report says. They advised Chavez-DeRemer to fire three employees they identified, though none were fired.
The report detailed a trip to Oregon in April 2025 where Chavez-DeRemer instructed security personnel to go to a strip club, took money from her purse, and instructed her driver to give it to a stripper. The driver "complied against his wishes" and reported the incident to his supervisor's boss.
After employees raised concerns about her travel that was against Federal Travel Regulations, they were demoted, the report says.
Chavez-DeRemer chose to exclude agents from her detail if they were "too old, physically unfit, overly rule-bound, or too MAGA."
The report concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to confirm that she was in a romantic or sexual relationship with a member of her security staff, but did detail inappropriate conduct between the two.
It says Chavez-DeRemer massaged his shoulders, detailed hotel room door activity when they were in rooms near each other and that the unnamed agent repeatedly broke protocol while serving on her security detail.
The report says their inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship continued after he was placed on administrative leave and suspended from his official duties.
Witnesses identified 13 trips Chavez-DeRemer took with taxpayer funds which included personal travel. That included multiple instances of her visiting family and five trips to Las Vegas.
The report also found she and staffers drank alcohol on federal property.
Chavez-DeRemer also accepted gifts such as tickets to a rodeo, an alligator-hide wallet and cowboy hats in violation of federal policy.
The report recommended several structural changes in the Department of Labor, including establishing policies about personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates, regularly auditing senior officials and strengthening whistleblower protections.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Report alleges Chavez-DeRemer visited strip clubs, drank on the job