Woman who stole and sold Ashley Biden diary sentenced to month in jail and home detention

A

Florida
woman
who
stole
and
then
sold
a
diary
and
other
items
belonging
to

Ashley
Biden
—
the
daughter
of
President
Joe
Biden
—
to
a
right-wing
media
group
weeks
before
the
2020
election
was
sentenced
Tuesday
to
one
month
in
federal
jail
and
three
months
of
home
detention.

Aimee
Harris,
41,
also
was
ordered
to
forfeit
$20,000
and
to
serve
three
years
of
probation
at
her
sentencing
in
U.S.
District
Court
in
Manhattan,
where
a
lawyer
for
Ashley
Biden
was
in
the
audience.

Before
Harris
was
sentenced,
assistant
U.S.
Attorney
Robert
Sobelman
told
Judge
Laura
Taylor
Swain
that
Harris
had
shown
a “pattern
of
disrespect
for
the
law
and
the
justice
system,”
and
was
motivated
to
steal
Ashley
Biden’s
property “to
make
as
much
money
as
she
could,”
and
to
harm
President
Biden
politically,
The
Associated
Press
reported.

“She
wanted
to
damage
Ms.
Biden’s
father,”
Sobelman
said,
the
AP
reported.

Prosecutors
had
asked
that
Harris
be
sentenced
to
between
four
to
10
months
in
jail,
as
recommended
by
federal
sentencing
guidelines.

The
Palm
Beach
resident,
whose
sentencing
was
postponed
about
a
dozen
times
at
her
request,
in
turn
asked
Swain
to
sentence
her
to
probation,
with
no
time
in
jail.

Although
Swain
gave
Harris
a
lighter
sentence
than
prosecutors
wanted,
she
called
Harris’
conduct “despicable,”
according
to
the
AP.

The
judge
pointed
out
that
Harris
initially
had
tried
to
sell
Ashley
Biden’s
items
to
the
campaign
of
then-President
Donald
Trump.

“I
do
not
believe
I
am
above
the
law,”
Harris
said,
the
AP
reported. “I’m
a
survivor
of
long-term
domestic
abuse
and
sexual
trauma.”

Harris
pleaded
guilty
in
August
2022
to
conspiring
with
60-year-old
Robert
Kurlander,
in
September
2020
to
steal
Ashley’s
possessions
from
a
Delray,
Florida,
home
where
Ashley
previously
lived
and
transporting
them
over
state
lines
for
sale.

Nicholas
Biase,
a
spokesman
for
the
Manhattan
U.S.
Attorney’s
Office,
which
prosecuted
Harris,
declined
to
comment.
Harris’
attorney
Anthony
Cecutti
declined
to
comment
to
CNBC,
but
in
court
had
told
the
judge
that
his
client “carries
the
shame
and
stigma
for
her
actions,”
the
AP
reported.

Harris,
who
temporarily
stayed
at
the
Delray
residence
after
Ashley
vacated
it,
discovered
the
diary,
which
had “highly
personal
entries,”
as
well
as
a
digital
storage
card
that
the
president’s
daughter
had
left
behind,
according
to
court
records.

The
provocative
right-wing
group
Project
Veritas
later
paid
Harris
and
the
Jupiter,
Florida,
resident
Kurlander
$20,000
apiece
for
the
items,
according
to
court
records.

Kurlander,
who
pleaded
guilty
at
the
same
time
as
Harris
did,
currently
is
scheduled
to
be
sentenced
on
Oct.
25
by
Swain.

Harris’
sentencing
comes
more
than
three
months
after
a
federal
judge
ruled
that
prosecutors
could
receive
documents
seized
by
the
FBI
with
search
warrants
executed
at
the
homes
of
Project
Veritas’
then-CEO
James
O’Keefe
and
two
other
members
of
the
group
in
November
2021
in
connection
with
a
criminal
investigation
of
the
diary
theft.

Judge
Analisa
Torres
ruled
that
prosecutors
could
get
documents
seized
in
connection
with
those
warrants
that
were
not
protected
by
attorney-client
privilege.

Torres’
order
in
late
December
notes
that
prosecutors
claim
that
Harris
and
Kurlander
were
paid
by
Project
Veritas
to
travel
to
New
York
to
hand
over
Ashley
Biden’s
journal
to
the
group.

“There,
Harris
allegedly
revealed
that
the
Victim
had
additional
items
in
the
Florida
residence,
and, ‘at
Project
Veritas’s
request,’
she
and
Kurlander
returned
to
Florida
to
retrieve
them,”
Torres
wrote,
citing
the
claims
by
prosecutors.

“The
Government
alleges
that
they
stole
additional
items
from
the
Victim
and
gave
them
to
a
Project
Veritas
employee
in
Florida,
who
transported
the
items
to
New
York.”

Torres
in
her
order
endorsed
the
finding
of
a
so-called
special
master,
who
was
appointed
to
review
the
documents,
that
Project
Veritas
and
O’Keefe
were
not
entitled
to
journalistic
privilege
in
shielding
the
documents
from
prosecutors’
eyes.

A
lawyer
for
O’Keefe
did
not
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment
Tuesday.

Neither
O’Keefe
nor
anyone
else
connected
to
Project
Veritas
has
been
charged
in
connection
with
the
diary.

O’Keefe,
in
a
statement
issued
after
the
FBI
searches,
said
that
his
organization
had
been
approached
by
people
offering
it
the
Biden
diary,
but
that
the
group
decided
not
to
publish
its
contents
and
later
turned
the
diary
over
to
law
enforcement
when
Ashley’s
lawyer
refused
to
accept
it.

“At
the
end
of
the
day,
we
made
the
ethical
decision
that
because,
in
part,
we
could
not
determine
if
the
diary
was
real,
if
the
diary
in
fact
belonged
to
Ashley
Biden,
or
if
the
contents
of
the
diary
occurred,
we
could
not
publish
the
diary
and
any
part
thereof,”
O’Keefe
said
at
the
time.

O’Keefe
was
removed
as
Project
Veritas’
chief
in
February
2023.

The
Associated
Press
contributed
to
this
report.