Former “non-binary” Biden Energy Department official Sam Brinton rolled off with a woman’s suitcase from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas last year while on a taxpayer-funded trip, according to a federal watchdog group.

Brinton, who President Joe Biden tapped to serve as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy, was fired six months later amid allegations of stealing luggage and women’s clothing from at least three different airports.

But during one of Brinton’s luggage heists, the federal watchdog Functional Government Initiative (FGI) report provided to The New York Post found that he was in Vegas on business representing the Energy Department when airport surveillance captured images of him swiping a woman’s suitcase.

“Not only did Sam Brinton commit a crime, the illegal shopping spree was funded by taxpayers,” Pete McGinnis, FGI’s director of communications, told The Post. “The pattern of petty theft shows that Brinton never should’ve been hired and given a security clearance in the first place.”

According to the report, Brinton’s business trip occurred from July 6 through July 9, 2022. It included a “meeting and site visit to DOE Las Vegas Site.” The four-day trip cost taxpayers $1,951.50, records show.

The documentation also revealed that Brinton stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club located on the Las Vegas Strip.

Authorities initially charged Brinton with a felony based on the belief he stole $3,670 worth of items. However, the former Biden official agreed to pay the victim more than $3,500 in restitution and received a suspended 180-day jail sentence under the assumption Brinton would obey the law.

Brinton pleaded “no contest” to the misdemeanor theft.

Brinton, who has dressed in drag and boasted online about his puppy role-play fetish, first came under fire in December 2022 for allegedly stealing a woman’s luggage in Minneapolis.

Authorities charged Brinton with stealing luggage at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, where he allegedly removed a tag from a navy blue Vera Bradley suitcase bag, dropped it into his handbag, and “then left the area at a quick pace” on September 16, 2022, according to a criminal complaint.

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And earlier this year, authorities arrested Brinton at a house in Rockville, Maryland, as a “fugitive from justice” for allegedly stealing luggage belonging to Tanzanian fashion designer Asya Khamsin.

Khamsin previously appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in March, saying that her luggage had been stolen from Reagan National Airport in 2018 on the way to a fashion show, causing catastrophe because she could not show her designs.

Brinton was later pictured wearing one of her one-of-a-kind designs that had been in the suitcase, she said.

Authorities later revealed that despite Brinton’s “non-binary” identifier, he would be placed in a men’s jail in Maryland before being released on bond in June.

When COVID struck the U.S., shutting down music and sports venues, movie theaters, bowling alleys, and more, Americans found a new hobby: drinking.

Well, many Americans already drink too much. U.S. Dietary Guidelines say women can have roughly one drink a day and men about two drinks a day, but some doctors say there’s no safe amount of alcohol that eliminates the risks associated. Either way, Americans hit the bottle after the lockdowns hit.

“Per capita consumption of ethanol from all alcoholic beverages combined in 2021 was 2.51 gallons, representing a 2.9 percent increase from 2.44 gallons in 2020 and a 5.5 percent increase from 2.38 gallons in 2019,” the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in its latest “surveillance report.”

“This was the largest two-year increase since 1969, when there was a 5.9 percent increase (2.37 gallons in 1967 to 2.51 gallons in 1969),” the report said.

The uptick in alcohol use came almost completely from hard liquor.

Among other findings:

Between 2020 and 2021, changes in overall per capita ethanol consumption included increases in 37 States and the District of Columbia, decreases in 10 States, and no changes in 3 States. Analysis of overall per capita alcohol consumption by U.S. Census region between 2020 and 2021 indicated increases of 5.4 percent in the Northeast, 1.6 percent in the Midwest, 3.4 percent in the South, and 2.3 percent in the West. In 2021, State-level per capita annual alcohol consumption was more than 10 percent above the overall national level (> 2.76 gallons) in 17 States and the District of Columbia, 10 percent or less above the national level (> 2.51–2.76 gallons) in 5 States, up to 10 percent below the national level (2.26–2.51 gallons) in 15 States, and more than 10 percent below the national level (< 2.26 gallons) in 13 States.

What’s more, other studies found that more Americans were drinking alone at home.

“Several studies have now shown that solitary drinking increased as a result of the pandemic,” said Kasey Creswell, an associate professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Studies have also shown that the associations between solitary drinking and alcohol problems are stronger for young women compared to young men,” she said. “This is especially concerning given that there have been recent increases in solitary drinking among US female adolescents.”

The increase in home drinking likely came about because many bars and restaurants shut down in the early days of the pandemic. Another NIH study found that at-home drinking can be bad.

“In general, on-premises contexts such as restaurants and bars/pubs were not associated with as many problems as off-premises contexts such as drinking at home or at friends’ and relatives’ homes,” said a study released in February.

“Injuries are associated with the frequency of drinking at home alone or with family and at restaurants. Volume of drinking at bars/pubs is also significantly associated with three different contexts: social problems, injury, and fights. But the volume of drinking at the home of friends or relatives is associated with fights only,” the study found.

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And there’s more. Some people became “day drinkers.”

“Problematic morning drinking increased month-by-month during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a pattern that was only evident for gainfully employed individuals who were under lockdown/stay-at-home orders,” another NIH study found.

For the record, some doctors say there’s no amount of alcohol you can consume that is “safe.” So if you were one of the Americans who started drinking more during the pandemic, maybe it’s time to give it up altogether.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.