Townhall’s Mia Cathell exposes more waste and fraud in our government, this time in the form of the useless diversity hire—former senior Department of Energy official Sam Brinton. As my colleague Nick Arama reported, Brinton was on a taxpayer-funded and supposedly top-secret trip to Nevada when he went on one of his last luggage theft sprees.

In an exclusive, Cathell reports that Brinton was still pulling down his six-figure salary—to the tune of $6,825 every two weeks, while he was under investigation for the three incidences of luggage theft—and supposedly on administrative leave.

💰 Sam Brinton—the cross-dressing Biden official caught 3x stealing women's clothes—remained on the DOE's taxpayer-funded payroll pocketing $20,500 at the time he was quietly placed on paid leave while facing a felony theft charge, per paystubs via FOIA.https://t.co/bXrnYPdjbg

— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) July 19, 2023

Cathell reports:

For a month during Brinton’s leave of absence with pay in the late fall to early winter of 2022, the serial thief serving as the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition in the U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy was paid $6,825 each two-week pay period—with payments on Nov. 17, Dec. 1, and Dec. 15 totaling more than $20,475, according to earnings statements the DOE provided in response to a public records request Townhall had submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

At the time, DOE officials refused to disclose to reporters if the Biden admin’s “gender-fluid” bandit was still on the “Senior Executive Service (ES)” pay plan. An Oct. 28 letter notifying Brinton of the paid-leave placement, which Townhall exclusively obtained via the FOIA request, showed that the thieving high-level executive enjoyed full pay and benefits before the suitcase-snatcher was soon sent packing after news broke that Brinton was busted again—this time for swiping another female victim’s suitcase containing the woman’s clothes, makeup, and jewelry in July at the Harry Reid International Airport near Las Vegas.

But those bright, shiny objects of diversity blinded them to the fact that they were platforming a truly mentally ill individual. Not only was Brinton sucking on the government teat during his leave of absence, but he traveled to Los Angeles to earn more money and fly his fetish flag high.

Brinton was instructed, in the interim, to maintain a work-ready status “at all times” and must have been prepared to work with little notice. But, on a paid-leave excursion, the stilettos-strutting seasoned traveler hosted a Nov. 26 spanking seminar at a kinky leather-themed Los Angeles sex “getaway” where the flogging fetishist led a hands-on BDSM workshop featuring live demos.

When he’s not hosting monthly “kink parties” in his D.C. sex “dungeon,” the flogging fetishist is teaching a “Physics of Kink” class on college campuses across the country, Brinton’s bio says. It’s estimated that Brinton has spanked “over 2,000 cute butts.” pic.twitter.com/Qt1N0VH2cT

— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) April 18, 2023

Brinton’s employment termination was announced on Dec. 4, a FOIA analyst for the DOE confirmed in an email to Townhall. Until now, the date of Brinton’s firing was never exactly known to the public. Its occurrence (and timing) was kept hush-hush until the media noticed that all mentions of the nuclear disposal czar were nuked from the DOE’s leadership website in mid-December.

So, to recap: Brinton not only escaped prosecution for his crimes and performed kink shows while he was supposed to be under investigation, but he was pulling down his full DOE salary. This was deliberately kept under wraps by Brinton’s boss, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Brinton and his “work” were simply memory-holed, as if he never existed. Twenty-thousand dollars could have been better served elsewhere, especially with double-digit inflation and rising goods and services making most Americans pinched and poorer. Both Granholm and Brinton should be the subjects of an oversight investigation. But with all that Congress currently has on its plate, don’t hold your breath.

In a Fox News Digital statement, FGI spokesperson Peter McGinnis said the funded venture put the “American public unwittingly at the wheel of the getaway car,” urging the government to reform its vetting process for senior-level positions. “Senior officials committing [a] petty crime while on the clock is a clear indication that something is dysfunctional in the personnel procedures.”

As we watch the farce of Democrats attacking the IRS whistleblowers who are exposing the bias and obstruction by the Department of Justice surrounding the Hunter Biden laptop investigation, we should be demanding an accounting of how our bloated and overpaid elected congressional members, as well as the train wreck hires of the Biden administration, waste money and resources, and make a farce of our representative republic.