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Disgraced ex-nuclear official Sam Brinton was arrested Wednesday. And faces a grand larceny charge stemming from the theft of clothes from an African designer, according to the alleged victim’s attorney Peter Hansen. And Brinson may be held in custody for up to a month before extradition to Washington D.C. 

Arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department he is currently being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit to await an extradition hearing on June 14.

MIT grad Sam is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. They were arrested as a “fugitive from justice” at their Rockville, Maryland home. 

There is no confirmation that the Montgomery County jail facility accommodates non-binary inmates. And Brinton may have to reside in the male section until the extradition hearing. 

Previous charges

 In December Brinton was fired by the Dept. of Energy when 2 other cases of alleged airport luggage theft went public.

Brinton, 35, served as the Biden administration’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition from June through Dec. 2022.

They were caught on camera in a pair of luggage thefts in Minnesota and Las Vegas. 

The new charges against Brinton come after they pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the theft of a woman’s luggage at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport in July 2022.

In exchange for the plea deal, Brinton was ordered to pay $3,670.74 in restitution and given a 180-day suspended jail sentence.

They also agreed to a mental health evaluation which is part of an adult diversion program related to a theft at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in September 2022.

Both cases have since been resolved with Brinson pleading no contest to a theft charge in Nevada last week.

African designer police report 

In February, Tanzanian fashion designer Asya Khamsin shared images of Brinton wearing clothing she designed and made. She claims a bag of her designer clothing was stolen from Reagan National Airport in 2018.

“Khamsin contacted authorities…she did file a report,” Hansen explained.

Khamzin’s lawyer says his client “provided information on the clothing that was searched for” at Brinton’s house this week.

Asya Khamsin shared images she found online of Brinton wearing her custom designs.

Hansen claims the investigation into Khamsin’s stolen items has been ongoing throughout 2023.

And he confirmed that the designer recently “provided images of [Brinton] in the designs and pictures of those designs on models or on Asya Khamsin herself to show they were the same articles.”

The clothes designer shared images she found online of Brinton wearing her custom designs with police.

In an interview with The New York Post in February, Khamsin recalled being “confused” about how Brinton was in possession of the one-of-a-kind bohemian dresses designed for her annual fashion show in Tanzania.

She had brought her designs to Washington D.C. to show them at another event when her luggage disappeared from the D.C. travel hub almost five years ago. She first reported the theft in 2018. And recently contacted police after she found the photos of Brinson and reported incident to the FBI.

Brinton’s husband, Kevin Rieck, did not comment on his spouse's legal problems.