Following the firing of Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear official Sam Brinton, critics have begun questioning as to how someone with a dodgy past and criminal tendencies managed to receive the highest level of security clearance in the federal government.
The Daily Caller reports that inconsistencies in Brinton’s origin story have arisen after his firing due to two separate instances of stealing someone else’s luggage while traveling at airports, which has led to felony charges against the “non-binary” and “gender-fluid” man.
A former official with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Environment and Natural Resources Division, who spoke to the media anonymously, said that the usual investigative efforts may have been ignored or skipped over during the vetting process for Brinton in order to avoid accusations of “transphobia.” As a result, red flags in Brinton’s past would have been overlooked as he was given Q clearance, the highest security clearance in the United States, for the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, a job that requires extensive knowledge of the nation’s nuclear secrets.
Brinton had previously admitted to having dealt with “trauma” in his early life as he first began to identify as gay, in an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times in 2018; in the piece, Brinton claimed, with no evidence, that he was “tortured” during gay conversion therapy sessions, and also claims that his parents threatened to murder him if he came home after deciding to remain gay. Such claims would normally render any potential hire unfit for federal office, said another former federal official on condition of anonymity.
For his job, Brinton was in charge of “programs including the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology and the Office of Integrated Waste Management,” also known as NE-8. The office of NE-8 is tasked with “managing ongoing research and development related to long-term disposition of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.”
Although Brinton’s bio is no longer available on the DOE website, an archived version has been saved, detailing Brinton’s history as an “advocate for LGBTQ youth,” who prefers to use the pronouns of “they, them, and theirs.”