Ex-Joe Biden staffer Sam Brinton's family denies forcing them to join conversion therapy, refutes abuse story
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Sam Brinton, a former Department of Energy official, has repeatedly claimed to have been beaten by their father, who they say held a gun to their head and forced them into conversion therapy. Their family, however, insists "there's no validity to those claims."
The disgraced non-binary nuclear engineer, 36, grabbed headlines when it emerged they allegedly stole women's suitcases worth thousands of dollars from Minneapolis and Nevada airports in a two brazen heists that were caught on camera. Sam, who was championed by the trans community over their self-professed harrowing childhood, is now being heavily questioned for the claims.
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'There’s no validity to those claims'
Brinton previously claimed, “I’m in this constant state of fear. My dad has held a gun up to my head multiple times.” The former Biden staffer also claimed to have been physically assaulted and landed in the emergency room at least seven times after they came out as trans at 11. They later claimed they were sent to a conversion therapist in Florida, where they were electrocuted and tortured with needles.
In a conversation with the New York Post, however, Brinton's younger sister, Rachel, said that her Southern Baptist missionary parents, Stephen and Peggy Jo, never subjected her, Brinton, or their younger brother Daniel to any kind of violence. “There’s no validity to those claims,” 34-year-old Rachel said, adding, “First of all, the claims of conversion therapy never happened, nor did my parents abuse my brother or I. My parents and I have always known the truth but we don’t preach to people what the truth is. It’s disheartening because my parents are still being slandered for the past decade because some people believed Samuel’s words.”
'We did not abuse him'
Peggo Jo reportedly said that neither she nor her husband sent them for conversion therapy in Florida as Brinton alleged in a 2018 New York Times op-ed. “I’ve never signed him up to have any conversion therapy and that’s pretty much the only comment I can give on that because he needs to tell his own story,” she told the outlet. When asked about claims that Stephen put their son in an emergency room, she said, “We did not abuse him. If he had been in an emergency room at any time, there would be records … and there are none.”
According to the police department in Perry, Iowa -- where Brinton grew up -- their records go back to 1994 and found "nothing relating to child, elderly abuse and or a domestic dispute” at the family residence. The only report they had of Brinton was related to a 2004 car accident, the department told The Post. they gained considerable recognition as a conversion therapy survivor and in 2017 helped launch the grassroots campaign “50 Bills 50 States” dedicated to implementing legislation against conversion therapy across the country. They claimed they were abused at the hands of their therapist. “They were seven King James Bibles on a stack on the coffee table,” Brinton told NBC in 2017, adding that the office was in a strip mall in Orlando, Florida. It's worth noting, nonetheless, that they haven't publicly revealed the name of the facility nor the therapist who allegedly abused them.
In January 2022, the MIT graduate was hired by the White House to serve as the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy. In December 2022, the Chairman of the Senate GOP Conference, Sen John Barrasso (R-WY), said that the Energy Department needed to investigate its "failed security clearance process” and how it vetted Brinton. Regardless, they were placed on leave and eventually fired from their post after their grand larceny charges came to light. Brinton now faces up to five years in prison in the Minnesota theft and up to 10 years in the Las Vegas case, The Post reported.