Sam Brinton, the “non-binary” former head of nuclear waste management entrusted with that awesome responsibility by the Biden administration, has so far escaped jail time for the two previously reported thefts of luggage he has been found guilty of, at Las Vegas and Minneapolis airports. Will a judge buy in to the same leniency if he is convicted (or pleads guilty) in a third incident for which he was just arrested?  Thomas Catenacci of Fox News reports:

Sam Brinton, the embattled former senior Department of Energy (DOE) official, was arrested as a "fugitive from justice" by Maryland police late Wednesday.

According to county records reviewed by Fox News Digital, Brinton was taken into custody in Rockville. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police, which is the lead law enforcement agency for both Washington, D.C., area airports, said the arrest was related to the theft of airport luggage, the third such criminal case involving Brinton.

"Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police executed a search warrant May 17 in Montgomery County, Maryland, in connection with allegations of stolen property in luggage from Reagan National Airport that was brought to the department’s attention in February 2023," James Johnson, a spokesperson for the MWAA, told Fox News Digital in an email.

"With the assistance of Montgomery County Police, Samuel Otis Brinton, age 35, of Rockville, Maryland, was taken into custody Wednesday pending charges of Grand Larceny," Johnson said.

Yahoo News summarizes his previous offense:

Brinton was charged in October for allegedly stealing a traveller’s bags worth a total of $2,325 from the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport on 16 September.

They [sic] were charged again in early December by Las Vegas prosecutors with grand larceny of an item with a value between $1,200 and $5,000.

Those charges accuse Brinton of stealing a suitcase from the Harry Reid International Airport with an estimated worth of $3,670 on 6 July, 2022. That bag also contained jewellery [sic] valued at $1,700, clothing valued at $850, and makeup valued at $500.

Brinton faced a combined 15 years in prison for the alleged thefts, but judges in both cases determined jail time was not necessary.

Brinton caught on surveillance camera at Las Vegas Airport (via NY Post)

As the New York Post reports, the latest arrest is the result of an investigation launched on the complaint of a fashion designer who saw her clothing being modeled by Brinton:

A lawyer for Tanzanian fashion designer Asya Khamsin later told The Post the charges are related to her missing suitcase. ,(snip)

The Tanzanian designer had shared images of the MIT grad wearing her stolen custom clothing in February. 

Brinton was spared the SWAT team style of arrest used against enemies of the Biden administration. Via Fox News:

In an interview Thursday with The Daily Wire, which first reported the arrest, a witness who claimed to be Brinton's neighbor said Brinton was arrested about an hour after four unmarked police cars arrived.

"Montgomery County Police assisted in the arrest of Sam Brinton," Shiera Goff, a Montgomery County Police Department spokesperson, told Fox News Digital. "The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police are lead on this." 

"Brinton was arrested at approximately 10 p.m. last night in their home on College Parkway," Goff added. "They [sic] are being held in the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit on a no-bond status as they await an extradition hearing. That’s all of the information we have on our end."

As part of his deal to avoid jail for the Minneapolis theft, Brinton agreed to undergo a mental health evaluation. I have no idea what the outcome of that will be, but I suspect that Brinton would seek to base a claim for no jail time on the basis of mental illness, if that is a possibility.

This leaves the question of how many other incidents of luggage theft Brinton might be responsible for. I hope that at airports that have had luggage thefts reportred that authorities are reviewing CCTV recordings looking for him on the dates and at the luggage carousels where the thefts occurred.   

The New York Times, which tells the rest of the media which stories to cover, has not a single word about the arrest today.