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Sam Brinton, the embattled former senior Department of Energy (DOE) official, was arrested late Wednesday by Maryland police as a “fugitive from justice.”
According to county records reviewed by Fox News Digital, Brinton was taken into custody in Rockville. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police, the lead law enforcement agency for both Washington, D.C., airports, said the arrest was related to the airport baggage theft, the third such criminal case involving Brinton.
“The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department executed a search warrant in Montgomery County, Maryland, on May 17 in connection with allegations of stolen property in baggage from Reagan National Airport that were brought to the attention of the department in February 2023,” James Johnson, a spokesman for the MWAA, told Fox News Digital in an email.
“With the help of the Montgomery County Police Department, Samuel Otis Brinton, age 35, of Rockville, Maryland, was taken into custody Wednesday awaiting charges from Grand Larceny,” Johnson said.
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Sam Brinton attends a 2019 event in Beverly Hills, California. (Tasia Wells/Getty Images for The Trevor Project)
In an interview Thursday with The Daily Wire, which first reported the arrest, a witness claiming to be Brinton’s neighbor said Brinton was arrested about an hour after four unmarked police cars arrived.
“The Montgomery County Police Department assisted in the arrest of Sam Brinton,” Shiera Goff, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Police Department, told Fox News Digital. “The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police is in charge of this.”
“Brinton was arrested around 10 p.m. last night at their home on College Parkway,” Goff added. “They are being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit on a no-bond status while they await an extradition hearing. That’s all the information we have from our side.’
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The arrest comes a month after Brinton — who made headlines last year after being appointed to the role overseeing nuclear waste policy at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy as a gender-fluid non-binary — escaped jail time in two separate cases in Minnesota and Nevada involving luggage theft.
Police charged Brinton in October with stealing a traveler’s luggage worth a total of $2,325 from the baggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport after a flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, DC, on Sept. 16.
Brinton’s official government portrait. (Ministry of Energy)
And in early December, Las Vegas prosecutors charged Brinton with grand larceny of an item valued between $1,200 and $5,000. Police charged Brinton with stealing a suitcase with a total estimated value of $3,670 on July 6 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The bag contained jewelry worth $1,700, clothes worth $850 and makeup worth $500.
Brinton risked a total of 15 years for the two alleged thefts. In both cases, however, the presiding judges ruled that imprisonment was not necessary.
In addition, a female Tanzanian fashion designer from Houston in February accused Brinton of wearing her custom designs packed in a luggage she reported missing in 2018. The Houston Police Department referred that case to the FBI.
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The DOE announced on December 12 that Brinton had left the agency, but would not comment on the reason for the departure.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
