Prosecutors said on Thursday that two Florida residents have pleaded guilty in a scheme to sell a diary and other items belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashely Biden, to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000. Ashley Biden, a 41-year-old social worker, is the daughter of the president and first lady Jill Biden.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ office said in a statement that Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property: “Harris and Kurlander sought to profit from their theft of another person’s personal property, and they now stand convicted of a federal felony as a result.” While authorities didn’t identify Ashley Biden or the organization that paid, the details of the investigation have been laid out in court filings and public statements from Project Veritas.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that Ashley Biden was moving out of a friend’s Delray Beach, Florida, home in spring 2020 when she stored the diary, tax records, a digital device with family photos, a cellphone and other items there. Harris then moved into the same room, stole the items and got in touch with Kurlander, who contacted Project Veritas, which asked for photos of the material and then paid for the two to bring it to New York. The activist group, which considers itself a news organization, paid the two $20,000 apiece, prosecutors said.
Project Veritas said it turned the journal over to law enforcement and never did anything illegal. Founder James O’Keefe has said that Project Veritas ultimately did not publish information from the diary because it could not confirm it belonged to Ashley Biden.
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