West Palm Beach woman stole Ashley Biden's diary, sold it to Project Veritas. How she'll pay

Weeks before the 2020 election, a West Palm Beach woman stole the diary of President Joe Biden's daughter and sold it to a right-wing group with hopes of derailing his campaign. Last week, a judge in New York sentenced her to one month in federal prison for it.

Aimee Harris, 41, conspired with 60-year-old Jupiter resident Robert Kurlander to sell Ashley Biden's stolen diary and several more of her belongings to Project Veritas for $40,000. According to prosecutors, Biden left behind the diary, a cellphone, tax records and a digital camera with family photos in a Delray Beach home she shared with a friend in 2020.

Two days after Biden moved out, Harris moved in and discovered the cache.

In a series of text messages prosecutors would later use against them, Harris and Kurlander schemed the ways in which they “make a S*** TON of money" selling Biden’s possessions. Two months before the 2020 election, they brought the stolen goods to a fundraiser for then-President Donald Trump with hopes of selling them to his campaign.

"Omg,” Harris texted Kurlander before the fundraiser. “Coming with stuff that neither one of us have seen or spoken about. I can't wait to show you what Mama has to bring Papa."

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Donald Trump campaign declined to buy stolen diary

According to court records, a campaign official declined to buy the items and told Harris and Kurlander to turn them over to the FBI. Kurlander reached out to Project Veritas instead. Prosecutors said the group paid for Harris and Kurlander to travel to New York City with Biden’s belongings.

After a series of negotiations, the organization agreed to pay Harris and Kurlander $40,000 for the diary, tax documents, camera, family photos and a handful of other belongings.

"They are taking what’s literally a stolen diary and info … and trying to make a story that will ruin (the Victim’s) life and try and effect the election," Kurlander texted Harris afterward. He recommended that the pair return to the Delray Beach home and search for anything else "worthwhile."

The diary's entries were published online shortly before the 2020 presidential election, but not by Project Veritas. National File, a right-wing news website, said it got the diary from a “whistleblower” who worked at Project Veritas after the site refused to publish the diary itself.

FBI agents raided the homes of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe and other journalists who worked for him in 2021 as part of the investigation into the diary. No charges have been filed against Project Veritas or O'Keefe, who has denied wrongdoing.

"Project Veritas' news gathering was ethical and legal," site officials wrote in 2022. "A journalist's lawful receipt of material later alleged to be stolen is routine, commonplace, and protected by the First Amendment."

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Prison sentence for stealing Ashley Biden's diary comes years after guilty plea

Harris and Kurlander pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiring to transport stolen property across state lines, for which they faced a maximum five-year prison sentence. According to The New York Times, Biden provided a statement to the court describing their conduct as "one of the most heinous forms of bullying."

Tuesday's sentencing hearing was the court's 12th attempt to impose a penalty since Harris pleaded guilty. Prosecutors initially recommended a non-prison penalty but revised their recommendation to four to 10 months in a federal facility to account for what they described as Harris' repeated "delay tactics."

Once she completes her monthlong stint in prison, Harris will begin three years of probation and three months of home confinement. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ordered her to repay the money she earned from the sale, which, according to The Times, Swain called "despicable."

Kurlander is scheduled to be sentenced this year.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida woman stole Biden daughter's diary and sold it to Project Veritas