As the Office of Personnel Management oversaw the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and pressed others to justify their positions, the agency’s chief spokesperson repeatedly used her office for a side hustle: aspiring Instagram fashion influencer.
In at least a dozen videos filmed in her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover modelled her outfit choices for the day, while directing followers from her Instagram account to a website that could earn her commissions on clothing sales.
On the same day OPM sent a government-wide memo pressing federal officials to identify barriers they faced in their work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees”, Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer.
Her Instagram account linked to a site where viewers could buy the $US475 ($754) purple skirt she wore in the video.
One watchdog group said her videos could run afoul of rules restricting the use of government property for personal benefit because, while in the workplace, she was using a website that pays content creators commissions from the clothing brands they promote.
Former OPM staffers during the Biden administration also told CNN that they were offended by Pinover posting as a fashion influencer on government property while defending mass layoffs of federal workers – at a time when top Trump administration officials have accused career employees of being lazy and wasteful.
“Your number one job as a leader is to protect and support your people,” said Jack Miller, who preceded Pinover as the politically appointed OPM communications director under former president Joe Biden.
“So instead of fighting tooth and nail to keep your team, we’re posting fashion videos. It’s absurd.”
Pinover, who started her job at the federal government’s human resources agency in January, has issued numerous statements backing the Trump administration’s moves to lay off probationary employees and offer buyouts to tens of thousands of others.
Pinover did not respond to a list of questions.
But she deleted her Instagram account, @getdressedwithmc, minutes after CNN asked about it.
On Instagram, where she had about 800 followers, Pinover’s posts were adorned with hashtags like #dcstyle and #dcinfluencer, and soundtracked with hits like Sabrina Carpenter’s Busy Woman.
She had posted as recently as yesterday, when she uploaded a video showing herself typing on her office computer.
Her account did not identify her as a federal employee.
The videos were filmed inside the office of the OPM communications director on the fifth floor of the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters, according to three former OPM staffers.
The office is across the hall from a secure annex that has become a hub for workers at the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting effort pushed by Trump ally Elon Musk.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office,'” a former OPM communications staffer, who asked not to be named out of concern for retaliation, told CNN.
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“She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos.”
Pinover’s Instagram page linked to her account on the fashion website ShopMy, which featured links for viewers to buy the same pieces of clothing Pinover wore in her videos.
At least some of the links on Pinover’s ShopMy page were “affiliate links” for clothing brands like Quince and Reformation, as well as retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s – a technique used by social media influencers to receive payments from companies whose products they promote.
Brands pay commissions to ShopMy users who send them customers through affiliate links, according to the website, with the influencers sometimes receiving about 15 per cent of the sales price.
It’s not clear what commission rate Pinover could have earned or whether she received any money through the links.
Pinover also deleted all the content on her ShopMy page on Tuesday.
According to federal regulations, government employees must not use public property “for other than authorised purposes,” with exceptions for “de minimis personal use,” such as sending a personal email from a government account.
Donald K. Sherman, the chief counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Pinover’s posts appeared to violate rules prohibiting the use of government resources for private gain, and would not be considered “de minimis.”
The rules don’t “give cover to a federal employee using government resources to subsidise their private business,” Sherman said.
“It is highly problematic that while dedicated civil servants who want to work for the government are being fired for all manner of dubious reasons, or are being forced out by this administration, that someone at the agency leading that attack on the civil service is using their government job for private gain.”
Still, Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said Pinover’s potential rule violations were small potatoes compared to other ethical questions surrounding the role of DOGE and Musk in the Trump administration.
Because Pinover didn’t reference her OPM position in her online posts, “she does not appear to be attempting to trade on the prestige of government office,” Clark noted.
Some federal agencies also have regulations that say certain employees need to get approval before pursuing a “business relationship or activity involving the provision of personal services by the employee for direct, indirect, or deferred compensation,” although it’s unclear if a similar rule covers OPM workers.
Several of the Instagram videos from Pinover’s office were posted during business hours, according to a review of code embedded in the social media website, and most appear to have been filmed during the daytime.
The former OPM staffers say they were particularly offended by one video Pinover posted on February 13.
That was the day that OPM reportedly held a call with other federal agencies directing them to lay off thousands of probationary employees – and when about 20 people on Pinover’s team were told their jobs would be cut, according to Miller, her predecessor.
The agency’s communications team “worked their butts off to support other agencies and the workforce,” Miller said.
“To post that video the very day your entire team is getting laid off is ridiculous.”
“While her team is getting axed, she’s twirling around in her office,” added the other former staffer.
Pinover also posted a video on February 28, the day that OPM sent out a second government-wide email asking federal employees to summarise their work.
Administration officials like Musk have described those emails as part of a broader effort to root out employees who were not using their time efficiently.
“Pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable,” Musk posted on his social media network, X, in January.
Before Pinover joined OPM at the beginning of Trump’s second term, she worked as a senior director at a public affairs firm, and was a deputy communications director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to her LinkedIn page.
She also worked as an assistant in the Executive Office of the President during Trump’s first term.
