Sam Brinton, the former Energy Department official who was fired for stealing designer luggage at a Las Vegas airport, was on a taxpayer-funded trip during the bag grab, according to internal Biden administration documents.
The paperwork obtained by government watchdog group Functional Government Initiative showed that taxpayers footed a $1,950 bill for Brinton’s trip to the DOE-operated Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas in early July 2022.
The documents showed that Brinton traveled on July 6 from Washington to Las Vegas and stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club on the Las Vegas Strip.
“It’s outrageous that tax dollars transported Brinton to and from the scene of a crime, putting the American public unwittingly at the wheel of the getaway car,” Functional Government Initiative spokesperson Peter McGinnis told Fox News, which first reported the group’s findings.
The disgraced former official pleaded no contest to grand larceny charges for stealing the luggage that contained more than $3,500 of jewelry, clothing and cosmetics. Brinton was fired by the DOE because of the incident.
Documents obtained by the watchdog group showed that Brinton’s trip to the DOE site was for an unspecified meeting and site visit. At the time, Sam Brinton was a deputy assistant secretary of the Energy Department’s Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.
The Nevada site is used for experiments that support the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons Stockpile Stewardship Programs, according to the DOE.
Brinton did not serve jail time for the Las Vegas incident but got a 180-day suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $3,670 to the luggage owner.
The Las Vegas incident is not the only time Brinton has been charged for pilfering luggage.
Brinton was charged with felony theft, which included penalties for up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, for Sept. 16 stealing a woman’s luggage with up to $2,325 worth of contents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Brinton again avoided jail time for the Minnesota incident after agreeing to join a diversion program.
The former federal official, who is nonbinary, was arrested at their Maryland home in May as a fugitive. The arrest stemmed from accusations that Brinton again stole luggage in 2018 at the Ronald Reagan National Airport from a Tanzanian fashion designer.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.
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