Ex-Biden official Sam Brinton accepts plea deal in Las Vegas luggage theft By Katherine Donlevy
The former Biden administration official accused in two separate stolen-luggage cases in different states was ordered to pay one of their victims back — but given no jail time — Tuesday after they pleaded no contest to the bizarre theft.
Samuel Brinton, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, was given a 180-day suspended jail sentence for lifting a woman’s suitcase from Las Vegas‘ Harry Reid International Airport in July 2022, according to court records obtained by Fox 5.
As part of the plea deal, Brinton was charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony.
A judge ordered them to pay $3,670.74 in restitution for the stolen luggage, which contained pricey jewelry, clothing and makeup.
The 35-year-old was caught on surveillance footage wearing a white T-shirt with a large rainbow-colored atomic nuclear symbol design — that Brinton was also caught wearing in an Instagram photo they posted later that day.
The 35-year-old was working as the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy when they committed the fashion crime, but has since been fired.
Brinton still faces felony charges in a similar case that alleges they struck again two months after the incident during a trip to Minnesota from Washington, DC.
They were caught on camera yanking a woman’s Vera Bradley bag off the baggage carousel at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and removing the owner’s ID tag before sneaking out, prosecutors allege.
Brinton — who was caught using the suitcase on at least two other occasions — admitted to investigators that they did grab the bag, but claimed it was an accident and was willing to return it along with its contents valued at $2,325.
Houston fashion designer Asya Khamsin told The Post in February she believes Brinton may have also been involved in a third luggage-lifting case.
She claims she noticed pictures of the White House official wearing her custom-made pieces that were lost at a Washington, DC, airport in 2018, four years before the Nevada and Minnesota cases.
Khamsin, who had traveled to the capital for a fashion show, was forced to withdraw and the garments were never recovered. Brinton has not been charged in that case.
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