OAN’s James Meyers
4:20 PM – Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Police returned articles of clothing to a Tanzanian fashion designer after authorities executed a search warrant of disgraced ex-Department of Energy (DOE) official Sam Brinton’s home.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department on Wednesday confirmed the search warrant execution, first reported by Fox News.
“The MWAA Police Department can confirm we returned the victim’s property and police retained photos of the evidence for prosecution. The case is still under adjudication and we cannot release more detailed information,” a spokesperson said.
In February, Brinton was charged with grand larceny for taking designer Asya Khamsin’s luggage at Virginia’s Ronald Reagan National Airport in 2018, after pictures later revealed Brinton was wearing a unique, brightly colored outfit that matched what had been in the luggage.
In a statement to The New York Post, Khamsin’s lawyer said the returned clothes were not “immediately either wearable or saleable, as the result of his use of them.”
Khamsin’s attorneys filed a lawsuit last week against the one-time nuclear official Brinton, who is non-binary and identifies with they/them pronouns, to be reimbursed for “the stolen items, the larger business harm done to her by the theft, and the public subordination of her business brand to Mr. Brinton’s personal brand,” he continued.
“Mr. Brinton’s theft wrongfully put Asya Khamsin [sic] in a bind. She could watch her stolen designs be used and celebrated without attribution to her, or she could call out the wrongful taking, but then watch both her and her work be publicly linked to Mr. Brinton without her consent,” the lawyers continued, repeatedly referring to Brinton as a man.
According to documents reviewed by The New York Post, Brinton allegedly took another woman’s suitcase while on a taxpayer-funded trip to Las Vegas last July.
The ex-Biden administration official pleaded no contest in the incident and was sentenced to a 180-day suspended jail sentence and was also forced to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Back in February, the fashion designer announced that she had to cancel a fashion show after her bag of 30 custom made pieces were stolen at the airport, only to see the pieces appear to be worn by Brinton at public events.
“I was thinking, ‘Who took my bag, where is it?’ for a long time. Then I see images of the outfits [being worn by Brinton] and I was so confused and upset,” said Khamsin, who splits her time between Houston and Tanzania.
“The investigation is in good hands with the FBI. I’m waiting on them, they will do the right thing,” she continued.
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