UJ
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During a period when the Office of Personnel Management was managing layoffs affecting thousands of federal employees and urging others to justify their roles, the agency’s leading spokesperson engaged in a side venture: aspiring fashion influencer on Instagram.
In at least twelve videos recorded from her OPM office, political appointee McLaurine Pinover showcased her daily outfits while directing her Instagram followers to a website where she could earn commissions from clothing sales.
On the same day that OPM circulated a memo urging federal officials to identify challenges in their roles related to the “swift termination of poor-performing employees,” Pinover posted a video blowing a kiss to the camera with the caption “work look” and the hashtag #dcinfluencer. Her Instagram profile linked to a site where viewers could purchase the $475 purple skirt she featured in the video.
One watchdog organization claimed her videos might violate regulations concerning the use of government property for personal gain, as she was promoting a site that provides commissions to content creators while at the office.
Former OPM employees from the Biden administration expressed their dismay to UJ over Pinover’s actions as a fashion influencer on government property, especially during a time of mass federal layoffs — when prominent Trump administration officials accused career staff of being inefficient and wasteful.
“As a leader, your foremost responsibility is to safeguard and assist your team,” stated Jack Miller, Pinover’s predecessor as the politically appointed OPM communications director under President Joe Biden. “Instead of striving to protect your team, we’re producing fashion videos. It’s ridiculous.”
Pinover, who began her role at the federal government’s human resources agency in January, has made numerous statements supporting the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off probationary employees and incentivize voluntary separations for tens of thousands of others. When OPM sent out an email last month asking federal employees to draft five bullet points of their recent achievements, Pinover referred to it as “a commitment to an effective and accountable federal workforce.”
Pinover did not respond to a list of inquiries. However, she deleted her Instagram account, @getdressedwithmc, within minutes of UJ’s inquiry.
On Instagram, where she had approximately 800 followers, Pinover’s posts included hashtags like #dcstyle and #dcinfluencer, often paired with popular tracks such as Sabrina Carpenter’s “Busy Woman.” She had uploaded new content even as recently as Tuesday, showcasing herself working on her office computer. Her account did not indicate her affiliation as a federal employee.
The videos were recorded in the OPM communications director’s office situated on the fifth floor of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, as reported by three former staff members. This office is located directly across from a secure annex that has been established as a common area for staff involved in the Department of Government Efficiency, which is the cost-cutting initiative championed by Trump ally Elon Musk.
“I saw it and thought, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office,’” remarked a former OPM communications staffer who chose to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation. “She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is promoting terminations based on performance and efficiency for the rest of the governmental workforce, and she’s utilizing government property to film her videos.”
Pinover’s Instagram page was linked to her ShopMy account, where viewers could purchase the same clothing items Pinover wore in her videos. At least some links on Pinover’s ShopMy page were labeled “affiliate links” for brands like Quince and Reformation, as well as established retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. This approach is commonly adopted by influencers to earn payment from brands for driving traffic through these referral links.
According to the ShopMy platform, brands pay commissions to users who attract customers through affiliate links, with influencers sometimes receiving around 15% of the selling price. The exact commission rate Pinover may have earned remains unclear, as does whether she received any compensation through the links. On Tuesday, Pinover also erased all content from her ShopMy page.
Federal guidelines stipulate that government employees must refrain from utilizing public property “for other than authorized purposes,” with exceptions allowed for “de minimis personal use,” such as sending personal emails from government accounts.
Donald K. Sherman, chief counsel for the watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, noted that Pinover’s postings seem to breach regulations prohibiting the use of government assets for private profit and would not qualify as “de minimis.”
The rules do not provide immunity for a federal employee who exploits government resources to subsidize their private ventures, Sherman stated. “It is deeply troubling that while devoted civil servants are being terminated for questionable reasons, or compelled to leave by this administration, an individual at the agency spearheading this assault on the civil service is leveraging their government role for personal benefit.”
Nevertheless, Kathleen Clark, an ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, remarked that Pinover’s potential regulation infringements are minor compared to broader ethical concerns surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency and Musk’s influence in the Trump administration.
Clark highlighted that since Pinover did not mention her OPM role in her online postings, “she doesn’t seem to be trying to leverage the prestige of a government position.”
Some federal agencies have regulations requiring specific employees to obtain approval before engaging in “business relationships or activities involving the provision of personal services by the employee for compensation,” though it is unclear if such policies apply to OPM employees.
A review of code embedded within the social media platform revealed that several of Pinover’s Instagram videos were uploaded during business hours, with most appearing to have been filmed during daytime.
Former OPM staff expressed particular displeasure regarding a video Pinover shared on February 13, coinciding with the day that OPM reportedly instructed other federal entities to lay off thousands of probationary employees — and when approximately 20 individuals from Pinover’s team were informed that their positions would be eliminated, according to Miller, her predecessor.
Miller commented, “The communications team worked tirelessly to support other agencies and the workforce. To post that video on the very day that your entire team is being laid off is absurd.”
“While her team is being eliminated, she’s dancing around in her office,” added the other former staff member.
Pinover also shared a video on February 28, the same day that OPM circulated a second memo requesting federal employees to summarize their recent outputs. Administration officials like Musk have framed these communications as part of a larger endeavor to identify employees who are not optimizing their work time.
Musk remarked on his social media platform X in January that “pretending to work while drawing on taxpayer funds is no longer acceptable.”
Prior to joining OPM at the beginning of Trump’s second term, Pinover held the position of senior director at a public affairs firm and served as deputy communications director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as per her LinkedIn profile. She also worked as an assistant in the Executive Office of the President during Trump’s initial term.
UJ’s Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting.
