Disgraced former Biden official Sam Brinton avoids jail in 2023 despite numerous theft charges

Disgraced former Biden nuclear waste official Sam Brinton, who was issued multiple charges related to the theft of luggage from airports across the US, has avoided jail time in 2023.

In two criminal cases against him, Brinton avoided jail time. A third criminal case and related lawsuit remain ongoing, according to the New York Post.

Brinton was charged in October of 2022 with stealing luggage from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport’s luggage carousel after flying in from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, DC on September 16 of the same year. The luggage and its contents was valued at $2,325.

In April of 2023, Brinton agreed during a remote Hennepin County, Minnesota hearing to enter into an adult diversion program, the terms of which require Brinton to have a mental health evaluation, write a letter of apology to the victim, complete three days of community service, and return to the victim any stolen property.

Brinton was also charged with grand larceny of an item valued between $1,200 and $5,000 in December 2022 after he stole a suitcase of items estimated to be worth $3,670 on July 6, 2022 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

The luggage contained clothing worth $850, makeup valued at $500, and jewelry worth $1,700. Brinton had been on an official taxpayer-funded trip to the Nevada National Security Site in Las Vegas at the time, in his duty as head of nuclear waste policy at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy.

In the Las Vegas case, Brinton was ordered to pay $3,671 to the victim as well as $500 in additional fees, which included a criminal fine.

Clark County Judge Ann Zimmerman handed down a 180-day suspended jail sentence to Brinton in the case, ordering Brinton to "stay out of trouble" or face the suspended sentence.

Brinton is facing a third ongoing case related to the alleged 2018 theft of a Tanzanian fashion designer’s luggage. Asya Khamsin came forward in February of 2023 after the previous cases came to light, stating that some of the articles of clothing Brinton had been photographed wearing were the same ones that were in her luggage that went missing in Washington, DC in 2018.

“I saw the images. Those were my custom designs, which were lost in that bag in 2018,” Khamsin told Fox News at the time. “He wore my clothes, which was stolen.

Brinton was arrested in May by Maryland and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police officers related to the theft.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 2024. Khamsin has also filed a lawsuit against Brinton.