A woman from Florida was handed a one-month prison sentence and three months of home confinement on Tuesday for her involvement in the theft and subsequent sale of Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary to the conservative group Project Veritas four years ago. Aimee Harris, hailing from Palm Beach, Florida, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who condemned Harris’s diary stealing actions as “despicable”.
In August 2022, Harris pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, confessing that she had received $20,000 out of the $40,000 paid by Project Veritas for personal items belonging to Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Project Veritas, established in 2010, purports to be a news organization and is renowned for conducting undercover operations that have caused embarrassment to news outlets, labor unions, and Democratic politicians.
Harris, visibly emotional, offered an apology for her role in the sale of Ashley Biden’s private writings after stumbling upon the diary and other belongings at a friend’s residence in Delray Beach, Florida, in 2020. Prosecutors revealed that Ashley Biden had believed her items were securely stored there after a temporary stay in the spring of 2020.
Expressing remorse, Harris stated, “I do not believe I am above the law,” acknowledging her failure to appear at multiple sentencing dates due to her responsibilities of caring for her two young children, aged eight and six. She also disclosed her history as a survivor of long-term domestic abuse and sexual trauma.
During the sentencing, with Ashley Biden’s attorney present in the courtroom, Harris directly apologized to the president’s daughter, expressing regret for intruding into her private life. Judge Swain highlighted that Harris, along with co-defendant Robert Kurlander of nearby Jupiter, Florida, initially attempted unsuccessfully to sell Ashley Biden’s possessions to Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
The judge emphasized that Harris, driven by greed and a desire to influence the political landscape, had engaged in a “pattern of disrespect for the law and the justice system.” Defense attorney Anthony Cecutti argued against prison time, citing his client’s traumatic past and her efforts to care for her children while recovering from abuse.
Assistant US attorney Robert Sobelman pushed for a prison sentence, emphasizing that Harris had stolen various items belonging to Ashley Biden in the hopes of inflicting damage on her father’s political reputation. Harris was instructed to report to prison in July, and as she left the courthouse, she declined to comment. Ashley Biden’s lawyer also refrained from making a statement, though he had submitted a letter to the judge on behalf of his client the day before, which was not immediately entered into the court record.
