Woman who stole Biden's daughter's diary sentenced
She sold it to a far-right group that wanted to disrupt the 2020 election
NEW YORK » A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced a Florida woman on Tuesday to a month behind bars for her role in a brazen scheme to steal the diary of President Joe Biden's daughter and sell it to a right-wing group in the hope of disrupting the 2020 election.
The conduct of the woman, Aimee Harris, “was despicable and consequently very serious,” Judge Laura Taylor Swain of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said before handing down a punishment.
Harris, 41, tested the patience of prosecutors and the judge overseeing the case, missing repeated sentencing dates and jeopardizing what otherwise appeared to be a likely path to probation. In August 2022, she pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport the stolen diary to New York, where she met with employees of the group, Project Veritas, and sold it for $40,000 just weeks before the election.
The judge also sentenced her to three years' probation, along with three months of home confinement, and ordered her to pay back the money she earned from the sale.
The sentencing of Harris reflects the seriousness of the government's efforts to deter people from interfering in elections. That includes former President Donald Trump, who is awaiting federal trial in Washington on charges of trying to subvert the outcome of the 2020 race.
In a statement provided to the court, Ashley Biden described what happened to her as “one of the most heinous forms of bullying.”
Initially federal prosecutors had recommended Harris face up to six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release, while her lawyers had requested probation. But her sentencing was pushed back repeatedly — a dozen times — in part because Harris claimed she had child care issues or was sick.
At a scheduled hearing in late January, Harris called the court from a hospital emergency room, prompting Swain to describe the situation as “highly irregular.” At a hearing in February, the judge told Harris that the reasons she had cited in seeking a delay were “matters of great concern for the court.”
Prosecutors, exasperated, asked the judge this month to impose a sentence of four to 10 months in prison, saying Harris had “repeatedly and consistently engaged in tactics to improperly delay this proceeding.” They accused her of misrepresenting the nature of her child care, failing to get an identification card so she could travel to New York and flouting the court's rules.
Swain finally threatened to have her arrested and brought to New York by U.S. marshals if she did not comply with the court's orders.
After her guilty plea in August 2022, prosecutors said Harris was later arrested and charged with driving under the influence with property damage and had tested positive for marijuana. The judge ordered her to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse.
Harris claimed that the diary had been abandoned, discarded at a friend's house where she had been staying. But prosecutors said that in August 2020, she stole the diary, which Ashley Biden had left at the house to store along with other personal items.
Harris then enlisted the help of a friend, Robert Kurlander, to sell the diary. Eventually, the pair found a buyer in Project Veritas, with each making $20,000. The two later returned to the house, taking other items belonging to the president's daughter to confirm she was in fact the diary's author.
Kurlander, 60, who also pleaded guilty and has cooperated with the Justice Department's investigation into the theft, is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. On Friday, prosecutors asked for a six-month delay. Kurlander was previously convicted of fraud in a federal court in Florida. He also faces prison time but unlike Harris, decided to cooperate with prosecutors.
As part of its investigation, the FBI searched the homes of three former employees of Project Veritas, including its founder, James O'Keefe, but so far none of them have been charged. All three have since left the group.
O'Keefe was pushed out of Project Veritas after employees denounced his management style and questionable spending.
Hannah Giles, who succeeded him as CEO, laid off employees. But she left.