At DLSE, they're legally not required to...

tell someone why they are under a DLSE investigation [that's their argument/justification], but their legal mumbo jumbo made no mention of their deliberate attempt to disguise the basis for their investigation. In the real world, when someone writes a statement and knows it to be false, that's called a lie.

When Lupe Almaraz wrote the memo and justified the DLSE's disruption of public service by pulling the DLSE employee out of work and into their investigative meeting on the basis of "job performance," it was a big, fat lie. Lupe Almaraz is not some probationary office clerk who just fell off the turnip truck. Lupe Almaraz is the Deputy Chief Labor Commissioner, and he lied when he wrote that his investigation wanted to delve into a DLSE employee's job performance. It would have been better for his credibility (and liability) had he just wrote nothing and ordered the employee to the meeting.

Liars, Cheats, and Thieves: what pleasant and professional leadership we have here, don't we?