Comment correction An earlier version of this story said Project Veritas put online portions of a diary purported to belong to Ashley Biden. The conservative group only claimed to have the diary, excerpts of which were published by a separate right-wing website. Two Florida residents have pleaded guilty in a case involving a stolen diary allegedly belonging to Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, that ended up in the hands of the conservative group Project Veritas, parts of which were made public in the weeks before the end of the 2020 presidential campaign. The Justice Department announced Thursday that Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property involving the theft of “personal effects of an immediate family member of a then former government official who was a candidate for national political office.” Nearly two weeks before the 2020 election, parts of the diary — which had been lost earlier in the campaign — were posted online on a right-wing website. The conservative group Project Veritas, which did not release the diary, claimed it allegedly belonged to the daughter of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and that the diary had been provided to them by an “independent”. While the conservative group claimed the diary was obtained legally, the FBI launched an investigation into how the diary ended up in the organization’s hands. Agents conducted two searches at homes of people connected to the activist group in November 2021. In its statement Thursday, the Justice Department said Harris and Courlander, around September 2020, “conspired to steal, transfer and sell ‘personal property belonging to an individual’ identified as the ‘victim.’ Michael J. Driscoll, assistant director of the FBI, said in a statement that the two defendants “conspired to steal an individual’s personal property, which they then sold to a third party and delivered across state lines.” “As a consequence of their actions, they now face punishment in the federal criminal justice system for their crimes,” Driscoll said. The Justice Department said the two knew the items belonged to a family member of a political candidate. According to the department, Harris resided at a Delray Beach, Fla., property where the items were stored by the victim. The items included the diary, tax books, a storage card with private family photos and a mobile phone. Harris, the Justice Department alleges, stole those items and, along with Kurlander, contacted an organization based in Mamaroneck, New York. Project Veritas is based there. The organization, the Justice Department said, paid them $20,000 for the stolen property and had them transport the items to New York. According to the Justice Department, the organization asked Harris and Kurlander to return to Florida and obtain more items from the property, which Harris still had access to. In a statement, Project Veritas said “the newsgathering was ethical and legal.” Harris and Kurlander pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to interstate transport stolen property, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. They also agreed to forfeit the $20,000 they paid. Kurlander, as part of his plea agreement, agreed to cooperate with the department’s investigation. This marks the first time charges have been filed in connection with the theft of the diary. According to the Justice Department’s investigation, the owner of the stolen property — whom the department never identified as Ashley Biden — was staying with a friend at the Florida residence in the spring of 2020 and moved out of the property around June 2020, leaving behind the personal belongings with the friend’s permission. The same friend, days after Biden moved out, invited Harris to temporarily stay in her room, where she found the items. Almost two months later, Harris asked Kurlander for help selling the property. Kurlander promised Harris that he would help her make money by selling the items. By September 2020, the two had contacted a political campaign in hopes of selling the items, but the campaign fell through, according to the Justice Department. The campaign instead advised the two to turn the items over to the FBI. In a message to Harris, Kurlander declined to do so and said the sale of the items would have to be “done in a different way.” Then they contacted the conservative organization.
