A woman from Florida, United States, was sentenced to a month in prison after she stole the diary of US President Joe Biden’s daughter and sold it to a conservative advocacy group, as per a report in the Independent. A US district judge ruled that the 41-year-old would face jail time and three months of home detention.
Harris stole Ashley Biden’s diary and other belongings from a friend’s Florida house in 2020. The President’s daughter had kept them at home for safekeeping. Harris then accepted $20,000 from Project Veritas, a far-right organisation, for selling the journal. In 2022, she entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiring to transfer stolen goods across states.
Following her plea, Harris missed many sentencing sessions. On Tuesday, she expressed her regret to the court and said she was busy caring for her two children. “I do not believe I am above the law. I’m a survivor of long-term domestic abuse and sexual trauma,” she said.
The 41-year-old was charged along with Robert Kurlander, who helped her with selling the diary. Initially, the two attempted to negotiate a settlement with a representative of Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. However, after the campaign backed out, the representative advised them to give the diary and other materials to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Later, they sold it to Project Veritas.
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, and two colleagues had their houses searched by FBI officials as part of their investigation into the allegations. Project Veritas and Mr O’Keefe have not been charged in this case. Project Veritas withheld the journals, which allegedly documented Ms Biden’s recovery journey from drug abuse. However, the documents were published by a different outlet with minor redactions, as per BBC. The diary was later handed over to law enforcement officials by Project Veritas.
“Stealing personal belongings of a candidate’s family member, and selling them to an organisation to exploit them for political gain, was wrong and illegal no matter the political agenda,” the prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memo.
