FIRST ON FOX: Police returned articles of clothing to a Tanzanian fashion designer they obtained while executing a search warrant of disgraced ex-Department of Energy (DOE) official Sam Brinton’s home.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police Department confirmed the clothes were returned to Asya Khamsin, who has alleged Brinton publicly wore clothing she designed, but which was in her bag she reported missing at Ronald Reagan National Airport years ago. In May, MWAA police officers executed a search warrant in connection with the case at Brinton’s Maryland residence.
“The MWAA Police Department can confirm we returned the victim’s property and police retained photos of the evidence for prosecution,” MWAA spokesperson Crystal Nosal told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday. “The case is still under adjudication and we cannot release more detailed information.”
Weeks after the search warrant was executed, Brinton was charged with felony grand larceny of items worth more than $1,000. The preliminary hearing in the case, which was filed in Arlington General District Court, has been delayed until December.
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Sam Brinton speaks onstage during an event in New York City on June 11, 2018. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for The Trevor Project)
In February, around the same time that MWAA Police learned about Brinton’s alleged theft at Ronald Reagan National Airport, Khamsin told Fox News Digital in an interview that she saw photographs in news articles where Brinton appeared to be wearing clothes with her custom designs. Khamsin added she packed the same clothes in a bag that vanished at the airport on March 9, 2018.
“I saw the images. Those were my custom designs, which were lost in that bag in 2018,” Khamsin told Fox News Digital at the time. “He wore my clothes, which was stolen.”
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Khamsin added that she had flown to Washington, D.C., to attend an event where she was invited to put her clothing on display. However, the disappearance of her bag prevented her from participating. She ultimately filed reports with the MWAA and Delta Air Lines following the incident, but the case went cold.
Then, after seeing the photographs of Brinton and reports that Brinton had allegedly stolen other luggage from airport baggage carousels, Khamsin filed a report with police in Houston where she and her husband live. The Houston Police Department later said it referred the case to the FBI.
Asya Idarous Khamsin and her husband Khamsin Alkhag speak out about Sam Brinton during a Fox News interview earlier this year. (Fox News)
“The MWAA returned to Asyakhamsin various parcels of retrieved clothing after the search warrant was executed. These items were returned in sealed evidence bags,” Peter Hansen, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing Khamsin, told Fox News Digital in an email Tuesday.
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In addition, Khamsin filed a civil suit related to the theft against Brinton on Friday.
Meanwhile, Brinton — who made headlines last year after being appointed to the position that oversees nuclear waste policy at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy as a non-binary gender-fluid person — escaped jail time in two separate cases in Minnesota and Nevada involving luggage thefts.
Brinton has been charged in multiple states with airport baggage thefts. (Department of Energy | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
Police charged Brinton in October with stealing a traveler’s baggage worth a total of $2,325 from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport after flying in from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16.
And in early December, Las Vegas prosecutors charged Brinton with grand larceny of an item valued between $1,200 and $5,000. Police accused Brinton of stealing a suitcase with a total estimated worth of $3,670 on July 6 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The bag contained jewelry valued at $1,700, clothing worth $850 and makeup valued at $500.
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Brinton was on an official taxpayer-funded trip to the Nevada National Security Site in Las Vegas at the time of the alleged theft.
Brinton faced up to 15 years total for the two alleged thefts. However, in both cases, the presiding judges ruled jail time wasn’t necessary.
The DOE on Dec. 12 announced that Brinton had left the agency, but wouldn’t comment on the reason for the departure.
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