Sam Brinton made history in January as the first openly gender-fluid senior U.S. government official. Now, they're receiving a pink slip. Brinton, 35, allegedly stole women's luggage at two different airports. Prosecutors charged them with felony theft and grand larceny. If convicted, they could receive up to 15 years in prison.
According to police reports, Brinton stole a suitcase at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in September. Two months earlier, cameras at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport caught Brinton making off with a $320 handbag. The bag contained nearly $4,000 worth of jewelry and other accessories.
A Las Vegas detective noted Brinton, who had access to nuclear secrets, wore a t-shirt with a rainbow-colored radiation warning symbol.
Addressing the growing controversy, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., publicly ripped the Biden administration for putting “wokeness over competence.”
Three conservative watchdog groups have gone a step further, demanding the Energy Department investigate its “failed security clearance process.”
The Washington Examiner explains:
“The American people need to know the security clearance process is focused on safeguarding secrets, not on ensuring that politically correct activists with problematic backgrounds still get jobs,” said Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation.
In January, Brinton was appointed as deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy. The former official has been charged with allegedly stealing a suitcase in September valued at $2,325 and, in July, a suitcase valued at $3,670, according to the Justice Department.
A prospective official must disclose personal information dating back to at least 10 years in order to obtain a security clearance. Questions often pertain to mental health and finances so the federal government can ensure the official can be trusted and is unlikely to be blackmailed.
During his brief tenure, Brinton managed a staff of 100 employees and a $45 million budget.
In a 2018 New York Times op-ed, Brinton described an allegedly traumatic upbringing in which the ex-official was “tortured.” Any prior administration would have read this article and determined that Brinton was unfit to be appointed to the Energy Department, a former DOJ official told the Daily Caller.
Following Brinton's appointment, an anonymous Energy Department official submitted a letter to the department's office of inspector general. The letter raised concerns over Brinton's lack of job qualifications and skills. These included “no prior federal government experience” and “no executive management or operations experience.”
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