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I enjoyed reading about your visit to the strip club where former U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer supposedly took a lunch break to celebrate sex workers. Did the feds ever explain what she was doing in there? Or is this another government secret now filed in a box at Area 51? —Pictures of Spider-Man
The Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General just released its report on Chavez-DeRemer’s brief but memorable tenure. Since President Trump replaced DOL’s career IG with a handpicked partisan hack last January, I was worried we might get a single page in crayon: “Laura Cesar-DeChavez was a FANTASTIC boss, like nobody’s ever seen, until she was UNFAIRLY smeared by Sleepy Joe Biden. Sad!”
Nope! This thing is a banger. Much of it documents LCD’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff terrorizing junior employees with a viciousness that makes the “coffee is for closers” guy from Glengarry Glen Ross look like Ted Lasso. It also covers LCD’s “inappropriate relationship” with her head of security, identified only as “ASAIC 1.”*
Now for the quotes you came for. “Chavez-DeRemer...requested an off-the-record stop at an establishment that was determined upon entry to feature partially nude dancers.” (You can decide for yourself whether the presence of nude dancers could only be “determined upon entry,” rather than, say, intuited in the parking lot from the sign depicting a naked woman on a stripper pole.)
According to witnesses, LCD asks rumored beau ASAIC 1 to “reassign the limousine driver so he could enter” the club with them. She then hands the driver money to give to the dancer; the driver balks. “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. The agent again hesitated and sought intervention from ASAIC 1, who told him to follow Chavez-DeRemer’s instructions. The agent complied, against his wishes.”
Imagine getting dragged into a titty bar by your boss and HIS boss (who you’re pretty sure he’s banging) and ordered to sleaze it up for their amusement. I’d be uncomfortable, and I’m a degenerate; this poor guy sounds like Mike Pence encountering his first glory hole.
I’ll bet I’m not the only one who felt a bit hypocritical piling on when the story was just “cabinet official goes to strip club.” But now that it’s “cabinet official torments underling with creepy sexual harassment at strip club,” we can be as judgy as we want. Sneer away!
*“Assistant Special Agent in Charge,” if anyone cares.
Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
