The Joe Biden administration reportedly placed official Sam Brinton on leave one month ago following accusations that he stole a woman’s luggage at the airport.
The New York Post confirmed this week that the Biden administration placed Brinton “on leave about a month ago following the accusations.” The outlet noted:
Brinton — who became one of the government’s first non-binary officials — was placed on leave about a month ago following the accusations. official was named as their interim replacement earlier this month, according to the Exchange Monitor, which tracks government officials’ moves.
The “openly genderfluid” Sam Brinton joined the Joe Biden administration earlier this year as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy before he was charged with a felony last month for allegedly stealing a woman’s luggage. The incident allegedly occurred at Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport on September 16, when a woman arriving from New Orleans went to the baggage carousel only to find that her navy blue Vera Bradley roller bag was missing. Per Alpha News:
Law enforcement at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport were alerted to a missing suitcase in the baggage claim area on Sept. 16. The adult female victim said she flew into MSP on a Delta flight from New Orleans and went to retrieve her checked bag at carousel seven.
Airport records confirmed the navy blue Vera Bradley roller bag arrived at 4:40 p.m. but was missing from the carousel. So law enforcement reviewed video surveillance footage from the baggage claim area and observed Brinton removing a navy blue roller bag from carousel seven, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint says Brinton removed a luggage tag from the bag, placed it into a handbag he was carrying, and “then left the area at a quick pace.” Brinton arrived at MSP Airport around 4:27 p.m. on an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., but did not check a bag, meaning he had no reason to visit baggage claim, according to the complaint.
The female victim, who estimated the bag cost $2,325, confirmed to police that the navy blue bag that Brinton took in the surveillance footage indeed belonged to her. Brinton later took an Uber to the InterContinental St. Paul Riverfront hotel where he checked in with the blue bag, according to the criminal complaint. He later returned to the airport on September 18 with the same bag in hand when he departed for Washington, DC.
On October 9, police questioned Brinton about the bag and if he “took anything that did not belong” to him. Brinton reportedly responded, “Not that I know of.”
Two hours after the interview, Brinton then allegedly called the investigating officer and admitted to not being “completely honest.” According to Brinton, he mistakenly took the navy blue bag due to him being tired from his trip and “got nervous” when, arriving at his hotel room, he realized that the bag belonged to someone else. Not knowing what to do, Brinton then allegedly told police that he left the woman’s clothes in the hotel room drawers and took the bag with him anyway in order to keep up appearances.
Brinton has allegedly not returned the bag to the female victim and police said no clothing was recovered from the hotel room. His first court hearing is scheduled for December 19 in Hennepin County.
According to the Daily Mail, Brinton hosted a “spanking seminar” at a kink conference weeks after the alleged incident under the “‘NuclearNerd’ nickname that’s still in use on fetish hookup website.”
“Last Saturday, Sam Brinton, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, who could be facing five years in prison for the bag theft, presented a seminar titled: ‘Spanking: From Calculus To Chemistry,’” reported the Mail.
“The seminar was held at Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles, where Brinton stayed on Friday and Saturday night,” it added. “The event was titled: ‘LA Leather Getaway’ and was sponsored by CLAW Corp., a national leather charity.”
Prior to his appointment with the Biden administration, Brinton openly opposed conversion therapy and taught “Kink 101” workshops on college campuses, according to the National Pulse. In one particular workshop, Brinton wore a dress while standing over three men in leather dog masks. Brinton called this a “pup play” fetish in a 2016 Metro Weekly article. Brinton said regarding the fetish:
One of the hardest things about being a handler is that I’ve honestly had people ask, ‘Wait, you have sex with animals?’ They believe it’s abusive, that it’s taking advantage of someone who may not be acting up to a level of human responsibility … The other misperception is that I have some really messed up background, like, did I have some horrible childhood trauma that made me like to have sex with animals?
Students of Sam’s Kink 101 class at the University of Nebraska expressed shock that Secretary Brinton (who they call Daddy) would steal a woman’s clothing. Evidently, he is VERY picky about the dresses he wears. pic.twitter.com/hy9nJnP3LZ
— @amuse (@amuse) November 28, 2022
