Two Floridians pleaded guilty to stealing the diary of President Joe Biden's daughter, Ashley.
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Floridians Plead Guilty to Stealing Biden’s Daughter’s Diary
Two Floridians
pleaded guilty in New York’s Southern District court to transporting the diary they stole from President
Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley in Florida shortly before the 2020 election to New York, where they were each paid $20,000 for it by the right-wing media group
Project Veritas.
Prosecutors said that Project Veritas even asked Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander to return to Biden’s home in order to pilfer more materials for the organization. They agreed before meeting with a representative from Project Veritas in Florida to hand over additional stolen items.
Axios
reported that Harris and Kurlander tried to entice the
Trump campaign into purchasing it, but were rejected, adding that Harris recruited Kurlander to help her shop out the diary to potential buyers. They originally approached the Trump campaign at a September 2020 fundraiser “with the intent of showing the Victim’s stolen property to a campaign representative … hoping that the political campaign would purchase it,” federal prosecutors wrote.
Texts between Harris and Kurlander reveal that Trump campaign officials told the pair they “couldn’t use” the diary. “They want it to go to the FBI,” wrote Kurlander. “There is NO WAY [Trump] can use this. It has to be done a different way.”
Harris stole the diary while temporarily residing in the home of a mutual friend who had allowed Ms. Biden, who’d written details about her personal life and
treatment and recovery from addiction, to store some of her property in the home. Other items stored in the home included “tax records, a digital storage card containing private family photographs, and a cellphone, among other things.”
Project Veritas ultimately did not publish the diary, which was instead posted online by the right-wing website National File. National File
claimed they obtained the diary pages from a “whistle blower” at a media organization who had the materials in their possession but had declined to publish them.
In 2021, the FBI
raided multiple locations associated with Project Veritas personnel, including
founder James O’Keefe. O’Keefe claimed the investigation into Project Veritas’ dealings with Harris and Krulander was politically motivated. In a
video response to the raid, O’Keefe argued that his interaction with the pair was “the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step.”
In a
statement released by the SDNY, FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said: “As they’ve admitted with today’s pleas, the defendants conspired to steal an individual’s personal property, which they subsequently sold to a third party and delivered across state lines.” The pair now await sentencing, and have “agreed to forfeit $20,000,” with Kurlander agreeing to cooperate with the government in ongoing matters related to the case.
