She Resigned in April Before Investigators Could Question Her. The Report Just Came Out Anyway.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned as Labor Secretary in April, becoming the third Cabinet official to leave the Trump administration's second term, right around the time she was scheduled to be interviewed by her own department's Inspector General. That interview never happened. The investigation continued without her, and on Thursday night, the department's Office of Inspector General quietly released its findings anyway: a 44-page report that describes a genuinely toxic workplace and specific personal misconduct.

More than 30 witnesses described the atmosphere Chavez-DeRemer oversaw as "toxic, intimidating and humiliating." The report details staff being berated in front of colleagues, performance issues discussed openly in front of other employees, and frequent threats of termination — plus allegations that some staffing decisions were made based on physical appearance rather than professional qualifications.

Separate from the workplace culture findings, the report accuses Chavez-DeRemer of an "inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship" with a member of her own security detail, of violating the department's alcohol policy by drinking during the workday, of combining personal and official travel in violation of travel regulations, of directing staff to perform personal errands on official time, and of failing to properly report gifts she received.

Chavez-DeRemer's attorney, Nick Oberheiden, pushed back directly on the findings, telling The Washington Post that the report "confirms that Secretary Chavez-DeRemer did not violate any laws" — a narrower claim than a denial of the underlying conduct, and one that doesn't address the workplace-culture findings at all.

Resigning before an Inspector General interview doesn't stop an investigation — it just means the subject never has to answer investigators' questions directly on the record. That's exactly what happened here: the report was completed and published five months after Chavez-DeRemer already left the building, describing conduct from a tenure that, on its own account, several senior staffers were also separately fired over.

IF Daily could not locate a broadcast video specifically covering this report at publication time; this account draws on reporting from ABC News, NPR, PBS, The Washington Post, and NBC News, cited below.