Thief who stole diary belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley is jailed

Aimee Harris made $20,000 after selling Ashley Biden’s journal to a right-wing organisation

A Florida woman who stole the journal of President Joe Biden’s daughter and sold it to a conservative advocacy group will face jail time and home detention, a US district judge ruled on Tuesday.

Harris stole Ashley Biden’s journal, among other possessions, from a friend’s home in Florida in 2020. The president’s daughter had kept them in the home for safekeeping. Harris later received $20,000 from Project Veritas, a far-right-wing group, in exchange for the journal.

She will now face one month behind bars and another three months of home detention. The sentence comes after Harris pled guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2022.

“I do not believe I am above the law,” Harris said in court ahead of her sentencing, per Politico.

Harris was charged alongside Robert Kurlander, whom she enlisted to help sell the journal. The pair initially tried to broker a deal with a representative from Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. But the campaign backed out, and the same representative said they should turn over the journal and other items to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Aimee Harris, right, walking out of Manhattan federal court on 9 April, will spend one month in prison after stealing and selling Ashley Biden’s journal (AP)

That’s when they turned to Project Veritas. The group identifies itself as a news organisation and is best known for using hidden cameras to discredit mainstream media organisations and progressive groups. They never published the diary, and it was later leaked to another media organisation.

Kurlander, who also made $20,000 from the sale, pled guilty to his charges and has since cooperated with prosecutors.

The FBI has since executed search warrants at the homes of two Project Veritas ex-employees, as well as the group’s founder, James O’Keefe, as part of the long-running investigation.

In a statement to The Independent, Project Veritas maintained that no member of the organisation has been charged with a crime.

Project Veritas also directed The Independent to a video of the original voicemail that “explains how Project Veritas came into possession of the diary – and how we ultimately returned it to authorities.”

Ashley Biden is not the only one of her siblings to have a personal item fall into the hands of conservative activists.

President Joe Biden walks with children Hunter and Ashley. Both Ashley and Hunter have seen personal information fall into the hands of right-wing activists (AP)

The issue of Hunter Biden’s so-called “laptop from hell” has reverberated in the worlds of politics and social media since a bombshell report in the New York Post tabloid weeks before the 2020 election.

The laptop was left in the hands of Trump-supporting repair man John Pal Mac Isaac, who is legally blind. Mr Mac Isaac said the individual who dropped off the laptop identified himself as Hunter Biden.

Information on the laptop — which included purported emails, text messages and photos, some explicit — later reached the public eye. Reviews from news outlets like CBS News and The Washington Post later revealed the data was authentic.

The president’s son has since sued Mr Mac Isaac, saying in court filings the repairman came into possession of the laptop “by whatever means.”

Meta later limited the circulation of the The New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the FBI approached the company and asked them to be aware that some content may be shared in an attempt to polarize the American electorate as the 2020 election approached. As such, the company “decreased distribution” of the story. The decision, and that of Twitter to limit the story as well, sparked accusations of political censorship.

Hunter Biden has since testified before Congress regarding claims that he used his father’s name to solicit millions of dollars in bribes from Kyiv-based company Burisma. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden is facing two criminal trials this summer. He will head to trial in California on tax-related charges just days after a trial for gun-related charges begins in Delaware.