Polygraph

Lori Chavez-DeRemer's December 2025 trip to Las Vegas was reassigned to include a Western Caucus speaking engagement to provide an official business justification for the travel.

Posted by Bulwark Takes, Checked

Polygraph verdictTrue
Sources
3 support
Said
1 time·
Confidence
90%
Bulwark TakesSep 5, 2026
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The DOL Inspector General report, a primary source, states that a Western Caucus speaking engagement previously assigned to Sonderling in Las Vegas in December 2025 was reassigned to Chavez-DeRemer after she received complimentary rodeo tickets from a lobbyist, apparently to provide an official business justification for her personal travel. NPR's report of the same findings corroborates this.

The host relays this claim without endorsing it. It counts as passed on, not against the post.

What was said

… it's all like personal travel that's intermingled with professional travel, and they write this: There was one trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, in, ah, Nevada, in December 2025. The initial itinerary contained no DOL engagements, Department of Labor engagements. After Wright and Chavez de Rima received complimentary tickets from a lobbyist to attend a rodeo, they previously scheduled Western Caucus speaking engagement assigned to, uh, someone else was reassigned to Chavez de Rima, apparently to provide an official business justification for her personal travel. So she cooks the books to go to Vegas because she got a tickets to a rodeo from a lobbyist. Let's go to the rodeo. What, I mean, assault to the earth person, strip clubs, rodeo. She sounds like a good hang, honestly. She does. …
Bulwark Takes · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. The OIG report of investigation states that a previously scheduled Western Caucus speaking engagement assigned to Sonderling was reassigned to Chavez-DeRemer, apparently to provide an official business justification for her personal travel, after she and Wright received complimentary lobbyist tickets to a rodeo.[2]

Supports. NPR reports that the Dec. 2025 Las Vegas trip was reassigned to Chavez-DeRemer after she received complimentary rodeo tickets from a lobbyist, citing the same investigative report's finding of an official business justification for personal travel.[3]

Supports. An AP report on the internal watchdog findings published the same week covers the report on misused funds and the Las Vegas travel, consistent with the OIG record.[1]

Context. Her attorney said the report did not find that Chavez-DeRemer broke any laws, which is a defense statement and does not contradict the documented reassignment.[3]

Sources

3 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 1 not rated

  1. 1Internal watchdog report: Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer oversaw hostile work environment, misused fundsapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
  2. 2Report of Investigation: Lori Chavez-Deremer, Former ...oig.dol.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
  3. 34 things investigators learned about the dysfunction at Trump's Labor Departmenthoustonpublicmedia.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context

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