MORE BAG NEWS FOR PREZ OFFICIAL
Kept & reused ‘stolen’ suitcase: filing
The nonbinary Biden-administration nuclear official accused of stealing a woman’s suitcase from the Minneapolis airport allegedly emptied out the clothes and used the bag for a month — despite insisting it was picked up by accident.
Sam Brinton — one of the federal government’s first gender-nonbinary officials — allegedly snatched the $2,325 Vera Bradley suitcase from the baggage-claim area at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Sept. 16, court documents say.
When Brinton, who uses they/ them pronouns, was confronted by police nearly a month later, they initially denied stealing the bag — insisting their clothes were inside the suitcase at the time.
But Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent-fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, soon backtracked and claimed to have taken the luggage by mistake.
Brinton told police they first realized the bag wasn’t theirs when they opened it at the hotel, according to the court filing.
They got nervous that someone would think they stole it, so they emptied the suitcase and dumped the woman’s clothes in hotel-room drawers, the court documents say.
Brinton allegedly put the ordeal down to exhaustion.
When police were first alerted to the theft, they reviewed surveillance footage that showed Brinton allegedly grabbing the luggage from the carousel and removing the ID tag identifying the owner.
Brinton was later captured on surveillance using the same suitcase on at least two trips to Washington, DC, on Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, according to authorities.
Police first made contact with Brinton on Oct. 9 about the alleged stolen suitcase.
“If I had taken the wrong bag, I am happy to return it,” Brinton initially told the cop, but called the officer back two hours and confessed to not being “completely honest.”
The Biden official was charged with felony theft of a moveable property without consent.
They were placed on leave in the wake of the allegations.
If convicted, Brinton could face up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.