A Labor Department inspector general report released Thursday said former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated department policy in multiple ways, including maintaining an inappropriately close and unprofessional relationship with her bodyguard, Brian Sloan. The report also said she resigned in April after the probe became public.
The findings give a sharper picture of why Chavez-DeRemer’s case drew so much attention. The report said a preponderance of the evidence supported multiple violations of DOL policy, and that Sloan exercised supervisory and operational authority over her protective detail while the relationship ran counter to federal impartiality and preferential-treatment standards.
One of the most damaging episodes involved an April 2025 trip to an Oregon strip club with subordinates, including her bodyman. During that visit, the report said Chavez-DeRemer took money from her purse, handed it to the driver and directed him to give it to the performer. When the driver resisted and sought guidance from Sloan, he complied. The report said she then took more money from her purse and asked the agent to drop the bills one by one onto the partially nude woman, and that the agent again hesitated before Sloan intervened and he followed the instruction.
The inspector general also said Chavez-DeRemer failed to comply with DOL policy prohibiting harassment in the workplace. Beyond that, the report listed four other areas in which she broke protocol: combining personal and official travel in a way that conflicted with DOL rules, possessing and consuming alcohol on federal property without proper authorization, directing government employees to carry out personal tasks on official time and resources, and failing to report gifts through required channels.
The findings did not stop with Chavez-DeRemer. The inspector general said four of her subordinates, including Sloan, also committed multiple policy violations. Electronic hotel door lock records from two Las Vegas trips appeared to show the two spending at least portions of the night in each other’s rooms. A witness also said Chavez-DeRemer massaged Sloan’s shoulders while seated behind him in a vehicle during a trip to Michigan, and another witness reported hearing Sloan make a comment interpreted as sexual innuendo.
Still, the report drew one line it said it could not cross. The inspector general said there was not sufficient evidence to establish that Chavez-DeRemer and Sloan had a romantic or sexual relationship, even as it concluded the relationship was inappropriate, unprofessional and incompatible with the standards that applied to her office.
The case now lands with its consequences mostly fixed and its larger unanswered question still hanging: what exactly prompted Chavez-DeRemer’s April resignation once the probe surfaced, if not the full scope of the conduct laid out Thursday?
