Police have once again arrested former Biden administration nuclear energy official Sam Brinton for stealing women’s clothes at a US airport. The incident is the third time the non-binary drag-queen scientist has been caught swiping other people’s luggage.
According to media reports, the 35-year-old was taken into custody at his home in Maryland on Thursday and transported to the Montgomery County Detention Center. Police say Brinton stands accused of Grand Larceny for stealing property at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C.
The charges against Brinton were filed back in February by Houston-based Tanzanian fashion designer Asya Khamsin, who believes that the former Biden official stole her clothes in 2018 and proceeded to wear them in public on several occasions.
Khamsin has shared photos of Brinton wearing clothes she had made and juxtaposed them to the same articles being worn by models or by the designer herself. The sticky-fingered MIT graduate even wore her jewelry, Khamsin tweeted. One of the photos that surfaced online was even used in a Vanity Fair feature about the flamboyant individual’s “style.”
Brinton, who was lauded as one of Joe Biden’s first non-binary LGBTQ officials, was previously in charge of overseeing and advising on nuclear waste at the US Energy Department, but was fired last year.
That was after it was revealed that Brinton had been the primary suspect in two luggage thefts at airports in Nevada and Minnesota. The ex-official initially denied stealing someone else’s property but later admitted his guilt after security footage showed him swiping the suitcase off the baggage carousel.
Last month, Brinton pleaded no contest to charges of stealing luggage in Las Vegas and was given a 180-day suspended sentence and ordered to “stay out of trouble.” He was also ordered to pay $3,670 in restitution to the victim, according to media reports.
Brinton’s appointment by President Joe Biden had been controversial from the start, even before the luggage theft allegations. The nuclear engineer had spoken at universities about the “kink” lifestyle and “pup play,” which involves sexual role-playing relationships with men pretending to be dogs.