Fashion Designer Claims Former DOE Official Sam Brinton Stole her Custom Clothing

A Houston-based fashion designer took to Twitter with photos purporting to show non-binary former DOE official Sam Brinton wearing clothing that disappeared along with her luggage in 2018.

UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported that Tanzanian-born fashion designer Asya Khamsin "shared side by side photos of herself wearing one of her outfits next to a photo that surfaced of Brinton in what she believes is the same one."

"I lost my bag 2018 in DCA," Khamsin's post said. "recently I heard the news on @FoxNews about @sambrinton luggage issue," the post added.

"surprisingly I found his images wore my custom made outfitswhich was in the lost bag on 2018," the post went on to say.

In a subsequent post, Khamsin shared more photos of Brinton wearing what appeared to be the same clothing as herself.

"Khamsin's bag vanished from the Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on March 9, 2018, after she flew into the capital for an event where she was to put her clothes on display, she told Fox" the New York Post recounted. "However, after the bag disappeared, she was unable to participate."

"Khamsin claims that her custom designed clothes are the same that are pictured on Brinton," who goes by they/them pronouns, the Daily Mail added.

After seeing Brinton's photo in news reports about them allegedly stealing luggage from airport claim areas on at least two previous occasions, the designer "filed a complaint with the Houston Police Department... and spoke with the FBI about the investigation, but as of this week Brinton has not been charged with a crime connected to Khamsin's claims," the Daily Mail said.

Appearing on Fox News, Khamsin said, "I saw the images. Those were my custom designs, which were lost in that bag in 2018."

She added that Brinton "wore my clothes, which was stolen."

Jewelry went missing in addition to the clothing, Khamsin claimed. In one Twitter post she identified one piece in particular.

Others on Twitter reached out to the designer with photos of Brinton wearing colorful clothing to ask whether the images might show them wearing more of the missing clothing.

As previously reported, Brinton, a scientist with expertise in nuclear waste and one of the first openly non-binary people to become a government official, was charged last year with felony theft after taking a designer suitcase worth more than $2,300 from an airport baggage carousel at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Brinton said they took the bag by mistake, but airport security records indicated that they had not checked a bag on that flight.

Full disclosure: This correspondent is acquainted with Sam Brinton, having been in the Boston Gay Men's Chorus with them.