Ex-labor secretary from Oregon drank on job, oversaw 'humiliating' workplace, report finds

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the one-term Oregon congresswoman tasked by the Trump administration to head the nation’s leading worker protection agency, oversaw harassment within her office, consumed alcohol on the job and had an inappropriate relationship with her security detail, according to an official federal watchdog.

The 44-page report last week from the Office of the Inspector General under the U.S. Department of Labor states that nearly 40 people interviewed by the office described Chavez-DeRemer’s office as a “toxic, intimidating and humiliating” workplace. In one instance, the report describes how she and some of her closest aides with ties to Oregon politics, Chief of Staff Jihun Han and Deputy Chief of Staff Rebecca Wright, encouraged people to join them.

“Interviewed witnesses attested that Chavez-DeRemer, Han, and Wright, regularly drank alcohol in Chavez-DeRemer’s study during official duty hours,” the report reads. “Witnesses reported that when other employees attending these meetings declined alcohol, Chavez-DeRemer, Han, and Wright pressured them to participate or ridiculed them for abstaining.”

Chavez-DeRemer, a former Happy Valley mayor, gained political prominence in 2022 when she flipped  Oregon’s 5th Congressional District spanning from southeast Portland across the Cascade Mountains and Bend. After losing to Democrat Janelle Bynum in the 2024 election, the Trump administration chose her to lead the Labor Department.

Her relatively short tenure at the Labor Department — she resigned in April — included a 50-state tour and threats to pursue criminal charges against department employees who spoke to reporters. During her tenure, the inspector general concluded, she violated agency policies across six different areas, including harassment, having an inappropriate relationship with a colleague, combining personal and official travel, possessing alcohol on federal property, directing government employees to perform personal tasks using official time and failing to report gifts through official channels. 

Chavez-DeRemer did not immediately return an email seeking comment. A phone number listed on her Oregon campaign filings hung up after an automated message asked for the caller’s information. 

Attempts to reach Wright and Han were similarly unsuccessful. 

Chavez-DeRemer’s attorney, Nick Oberheiden, did not respond to the Capital Chronicle’s request for comment via email. In statements to other news outlets, Oberheiden has said that Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any laws. 

“While some — with or without their own agenda — may not have liked the way she managed the Department, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer looks back with the same pride of having served President Trump’s Administration and the American workers,” Oberheiden said in a statement.

Strip club in Oregon, retaliation for media reports among allegations

Some of the report also details alleged misconduct that took place in Oregon, including a visit to a Portland-based strip club which Willamette Week reported on in May. The report notes that Chavez-DeRemer requested her security detail to reassign her limousine driver so he could enter with her. 

The report refers to the detail as “ASAIC 1,” for assistant special agent in charge. It says the driver complied after the detail encouraged him to follow Chavez-DeRemer’s directions. 

“Chavez-DeRemer subsequently took money from her purse, gave the money to the driver, and directed him to give it to the performer. When the agent resisted and sought guidance from ASAIC 1, ASAIC 1 instructed him to comply with Chavez-DeRemer’s requests,” the report reads. “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.”

Also at the center of the report were two of Chavez-DeRemer’s closest employees, Han and Wright, who both have histories in Republican politics in Oregon. Witnesses said Han would threaten them with losing their jobs and “appeared to take satisfaction in doing so.” They also heard Wright tell an employee not to get a haircut above her shoulders to avoid “turning into a lesbian.” 

Han served as an Oregon legislative chief of staff and as a political director for the Oregon House Republican campaign arm from 2019 to 2021, according to his Linkedin. Wright is president of the Oregon-based A New Direction nonprofit started by now-state Sen. Christine Drazan, state records show. She also served as a deputy campaign director for Drazan’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign.

The report states that Han and Wright worked to figure out who was leaking information to the media about an investigation into Chavez-DeRemer over an alleged inappropriate relationship with an employee, exacerbating an already negative environment within the agency. The New York Post reported a Jan. 9 article detailing accusations against the secretary including her relationship with a subordinate, alcohol in the office and the use of professional travel time for personal trips. 

“Following publication of media articles concerning Chavez-DeRemer, witnesses stated that Han and Wright assured Chavez-DeRemer that they would terminate three employees following the first article,” the report reads. “After spending several days focused almost exclusively on reviewing political appointees to identify a possible source of the leaks, they attempted to narrow down potential sources by identifying individuals with access to Chavez-DeRemer’s personal calendar.”

Chavez-DeRemer resigned from the Labor Department in April and her attorney declined to make her available for an interview with investigators, according to the report. She has since taken a job in the private sector as a senior adviser at a communications firm advocating for data centers. 

The Labor Department placed Han and Wright on administrative leave in January and terminated them in March, according to the report, though media reports at the time said they were given an ultimatum to resign. Their attorneys declined to make them available for interviews with investigators.

Source: Washington State Standard

This article was originally published by Washington State Standard.