A Biden administration official is on leave after they were charged with stealing a Vera Bradley sui

[question everything]

A Biden administration official is on leave after they were charged with stealing a Vera Bradley suitcase worth over $2,000 from a Minnesota airport

(snip)

Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, was accused of taking the luggage from baggage claim at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on September 16, according to a complaint filed last month.

(snip)

Surveillance footage captured Brinton, 35, taking the Vera Bradley luggage from the carousel at around 4:45 p.m. after Brinton arrived at the airport on an American Airlines flight from Washington, DC, the court documents allege.

The complaint states that Brinton took off the bag's tag and left the area "at a quick pace" before hopping into a cab; records from American Airlines show Brinton never checked a bag before they left Washington DC, according to the Court papers.

Brinton was then caught on surveillance footage camera checking into a luxury riverfront hotel in St. Paul with the bag, the complaint says. Two days later, on September 18, Brinton was seen checking the bag before boarding a flight back to Washington DC, the documents state. Brinton was again seen on surveillance video carrying the bag at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia after returning from a Europe trip on October 9, investigators said.

More..

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-administration-official-leave-were-170737660.html

==========

Curiouser and curiouser..

[emulatorloo]

1. Dumb. OTOH A Trump official who got caught doing this would have claimed the Deep State framed him.

[yankee87]

17. Tin foil hat time

There are so many plot twists here we need Q to figure it out

[woodsprite]

2. My first thought -- what was in the bag? nt

[Celerity]

13. 2300 usd (which is hardly a huge amount) worth of clothing, etc

[secondwind]

3. "On leave" isn't enough.

Shame on her……

[emulatorloo]

4. Will no doubt get fired after the investigation is complete.

It does sound like the police have a slam dunk case.

[womanofthehills]

15. Sounds like something they might have done before

As they had no checked luggage and no reason to be at the luggage carousel.

[BlackSkimmer]

30. Yeah, that hardly seems like an entry point for thievery.

They were seen on video, seen taking the bag tag off the bag, lied about it, then confessed, even used the bag on a subsequent trip.

Probably not their first rodeo.

[Scrivener7]

5. Wonder why the article identifies them as a "Biden administration official"

when they themself says:

Link to tweet

To clarify, I am not a Biden appointee (despite what was reported) and instead serve as a career employee in the Senior Executive Service - I intend to be serving my country in this role through many many presidencies.

[underpants]

6. Yeah it's being reported that way everywhere

Mainly because RW media jumped all over this.

[Scrivener7]

7. Yep.

And, jeez, the comments on that article make me despair of my fellow humans.

[womanofthehills]

16. If you search their name & select photos you will know why

Some disturbing photos with bondage and men in dog costumes. Of course, the GOP jumped on this.

[Ocelot II]

8. Sounds like a Civil Service position, but given the unusual circumstances of the case,

the RW media would probably prefer to offer up the inference that this person is a Biden appointee and not a rank and file government employee, which they actually are. And apparently they stole a suitcase.

[thucythucy]

9. I suppose right wing media see this as balancing out the Oath Keepers

being found guilty of trying to overthrow the government.

"Yeah, but a minor government official nobody ever heard of stole a suitcase!"

Not to mention, it sounds like this person intends to contest the charge.

There's that whole "innocent until proven guilty" nonsense again, when everyone knows it only applies to Republicans.

[Scrivener7]

10. I bet you're right. Hadn't thought of that.

Also, what Vera Bradley bag costs $2000?

[Ocelot II]

11. The most expensive suitcases are about $500, so it's likely that

the value of the contents was part of that $2000.

[Scrivener7]

22. Ah! That makes sense.

[Celerity]

12. From the article: The 26-inch navy blue hard-sided roller bag and its contents were estimated to be

worth $2,325, according to the court documents obtained by Insider.

[womanofthehills]

14. Another article said the amount included the woman's clothes

He said he took the suitcase by mistake but then said he emptied the woman’s clothes into a drawer at his hotel and left her clothes there but hotel said he did not.

[womanofthehills]

18. I doubt it will be contested

Just do a photo search on this person - not good - bondage stuff.

They also sometimes are a nun - I really do love their name as a nun - Sister RAY DEE 0’ACTIVE - my boyfriend’s sister is a nun with a boring name - Sister Joan.

[thucythucy]

34. An intriguing person indeed. nt

[MichMan]

19. I guessing not after this incident

"To clarify, I am not a Biden appointee (despite what was reported) and instead serve as a career employee in the Senior Executive Service - I intend to be serving my country in this role through many many presidencies."

Was hired 6 months ago I believe

[onetexan]

29. it's Yahoo news, of course they would link it to Biden admin

[catchnrelease]

20. This sounds like a script

Sounds like it should be the plot of a British crime drama or an episode of MI5! (I know this happened in the US, but it reminds me of something from one of the many UK police procedurals or spy series.)

It certainly sounds like their movements were tracked for quite a while. Almost 3 weeks?

[womanofthehills]

21. I read they kept using their stolen suitcase for 2 or more flights after they stole it

They would definitely stand out on any video or surveillance if you check out their images on the net.

[Ocelot II]

23. If I were going to steal a suitcase from the baggage carousel,

it would not be a Vera Bradley. They have very distinctive and colorful floral designs, which is probably one reason people buy them - they're so much easier to identify among the piles of almost identical black bags. This whole situation is pretty odd.

[MichMan]

40. Might have been what they found appealing about it.

[Scrivener7]

24. In the end, though, would thus be a story if it had been anyone else?

I don't remember any other stolen luggage stories that have gone national.

question everything, this is in no way a complaint about your posting of the story.

It is interesting in that it IS a national story and it says important things about how we treat gender right now.

The person is able to be open about their fluidity, but their actions are more scrutinized than the actions of the rest of us would be.

And dear God, the comments on that article show that people are not really all that bothered about the luggage theft. They're much more bothered because Brinton's gender fluidity makes them uncomfortable.

[Ocelot II]

27. You're right. It's not all that unusual for luggage to be stolen,

although the various explanations for this particular theft (it was mine, no it wasn't, I gave it back, etc.) are a bit dodgy. But the emphasis has been on the person's gender fluidity and the fact that they were (incorrectly represented in the media as) a Biden administration official even though they are just a minor civil service employee. So what we're seeing in the RW press is "OMG this totally weird person who works for Biden stole an expensive suitcase and refused to give it back!" If the alleged luggage thief had been a cis accountant who works for a bank the incident wouldn't have made the national news at all - might have turned up as a couple of paragraphs in the local news section of the Star-Tribune.

[Scrivener7]

28. Exactly. It would have been a REALLY embarassing moment when the accountant's wife

found out, and maybe the neighbors, and he might have been fired and paid a fine.

Brinton is now national news. And I bet they will be for some time to come.

But, all gender conversation aside, what a dope!

[Ocelot II]

36. Ha, I called it! This story is, in fact, on the inside back page

of todays Star-Tribune’s local news section, next to the obituaries.

[BlackSkimmer]

31. I don't care about the person's gender, but their position with (most likely) security

clearances is troubling.

Obviously they make a good living, so something else is going on with them. Very troubling story.

[Scrivener7]

32. Yes.

[question everything]

35. Yahoo is my home page, so when I opened it and the headline with a photo of, supposedly a bald

headed woman - bright lipstick, no facial hair - it caught my attention.

And then when the story gave the name Sam Brinton I was confused, could be Samantha though.

The body of the story never uses pronoun, only Brinton.

Brinton is later described as: first openly "gender fluid" employees. I doubt that any Republican administration would have them as an employee. So of course the RW is celebrating.

Still, bizarre story. Interesting that nothing is mentioned about the owner of the suitcase who must have filed a complaint about missing luggage.

Oh, and the original story is from the Insider

https://www.insider.com/biden-official-charged-theft-vera-bradley-suitcase-from-airport-2022-11

not an RW publication. Today's headline is

Secret memo reveals Bush rewriting the history of the 9/11 attacks

[Jose Garcia]

37. It's newsworthy because they are a notable person

There was a significant amount of media attention (both positive and negative) when they were hired.

[BlackSkimmer]

38. Not to mention I would assume they have a security clearance.

Working with nuclear waste would require one, I would think.

Brinton is facing felony charges, so a conviction will probably result in that being rescinded.

It’s rather disturbing that anyone in that kind of position is either a thief or has extremely bad judgement, to say the least.

[Evergreen Emerald]

25. People forget that cameras are everywhere.

What was he thinking?

[Jose Garcia]

39. Not everywhere. But definitely at airports

[JI7]

26. This story along with some pageant won by a Transgender woman is being pushed by the Right Wing

and of course Hunter Biden.

These are the huge "challenges" and "concerns" facing the world according to them.

Nothing on the multiple mass shootings though .

[MichMan]

41. Brinton has now been charged with a second luggage theft in Vegas.