President Donald Trump secretary of labor allegedly kept a stash of booze tucked away at her D.C. office and used an official trip on department business to take subordinates out to a strip club.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, 57, apparently took staff to the Angels PDX club outside Portland during a visit to Oregon to meet with Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, according to the New York Post.
Travel vouchers obtained by the outlet put the Oregon trip’s total cost to taxpayers at almost $3,000, including $1,324.21 on transportation, $722 on lodging, $655 on meals, and $188.35 on “miscellaneous expenses.”
The allegations come as the labor secretary, who is married, reportedly faces an internal probe over complaints she has been “abusing her position” by pursuing a relationship with a subordinate, as well as drinking on the job and tasking staffers with inventing bogus departmental business trips so that she could visit family and friends.
Booze stashed in her office reportedly included champagne, bourbon, and Kahlua.
The probe has reportedly involved at least a dozen interviews with government officials so far. The complaint alleged that Chavez DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, and his deputy, Rebecca Wright, had knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.
Han and Wright, along with a third, as-yet-unnamed staffer, are reportedly now on leave. Chavez-DeRemer is not.
Even before news of the probe broke, Chavez-DeRemer, who previously represented Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, had raised eyebrows with a birthday party she threw herself at the Department of Labor’s headquarters in April.
Staffers felt the party was tone-deaf given the department and other federal authorities were facing drastic cuts at the time under the wider mantle of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting DOGE initiative.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House, Department of Labor, and Chavez-DeRemer’s representatives for comment on this story.
“We notice—with increasing concern—that information, irrespective of its falsity, is leaked from internal DOL sources,” Chavez DeRemer’s attorney, Dr. Nick Oberheiden, said. “Meanwhile, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is tirelessly traveling the country to promote President Trump’s economic agenda to improve American workers’ lives.”
“The Department will not comment on internal or personnel matters,” a spokesperson for the Labor Department said. “The Secretary remains focused on carrying out the Department’s mission and supporting American workers.”
“The New York Post was unable to provide any evidence to corroborate these baseless claims in this ‘report’ supposedly filed by a FORMER disgruntled employee,” a White House spokesperson previously said.
“Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is an incredible asset to President Trump’s team and she will continue advancing the President’s America First agenda,” they added.
