Aimee Harris and the Ashley Biden Diary Theft Case

Aimee Harris is a Florida woman who pleaded guilty in 2022 to stealing Ashley Biden’s diary and other personal belongings from a Delray Beach home and selling them to the conservative activist group Project Veritas during the 2020 presidential campaign. In April 2024, a federal judge sentenced her to one month in prison, three months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release, calling her conduct “despicable.”¹

How Harris Came Into Possession of the Diary

In the spring of 2020, Ashley Biden was staying at a friend’s house in Delray Beach, Florida. When she moved out in June 2020, she left behind personal belongings with the homeowner’s permission: a handwritten diary, tax records, a digital storage card with private family photographs, a cellphone, books, clothing, and luggage.² Harris then moved into the room Ashley Biden had used and found the items.³

The diary itself had been kept by Ashley Biden in 2019 while she was undergoing treatment for addiction.⁴ Its personal contents made it valuable in the final stretch of the presidential race, and Harris moved to sell it.

The Sale to Project Veritas

Harris partnered with Robert Kurlander, a Jupiter, Florida, resident. On September 6, 2020, the two attended a Trump campaign fundraiser and tried to interest the campaign in buying the materials. The campaign declined. Kurlander later texted Harris: “They want it to go to the FBI. There is NO WAY [Trump] can use this. It has to be done a different way.”⁵

The pair then turned to Project Veritas, the conservative activist organization founded by James O’Keefe, which had been contacted about the diary around September 3, 2020.⁶⁷⁸

What Project Veritas Did With the Diary

Project Veritas did not publish the diary. In an October 12, 2020, email, O’Keefe told his team that while he had “no doubt the document is real,” any release would be “characterized as a cheap shot.” Four days later, the group’s chief legal officer wrote to Joe Biden and his campaign, describing the diary as “abandoned,” offering an on-camera interview about its contents, and warning that the organization would “act unilaterally” if there was no response by October 20.⁶

The diary was published instead by the right-wing website National File. On October 24, 2020, less than two weeks before Election Day, National File ran a story on the diary and posted a PDF of the full document two days later. Its operator said the copy came from a “disgruntled” whistleblower inside Project Veritas.⁹

After the election, Project Veritas arranged for the physical items to be turned over to the Delray Beach Police Department. A lawyer delivered two bags to the station and told police the property was “possibly stolen.” The items were identified as Ashley Biden’s and referred to the Secret Service and FBI.⁶

Project Veritas has never been charged. The organization has maintained its activities were “ethical and legal” newsgathering, and O’Keefe said “there was no doubt Project Veritas acted appropriately at each and every step.” Federal prosecutors drew a distinction: media organizations generally are not culpable for receiving stolen material, but “there can be criminal liability for orchestrating theft and then knowingly paying for stolen material.”¹⁰

The Guilty Plea

On August 25, 2022, Harris and Kurlander both pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Each agreed to forfeit the $20,000 they received. Kurlander also agreed to cooperate with the government.⁸

Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain accepted both pleas on August 29, 2022, finding them “knowingly and voluntarily” entered. Harris was released on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond with conditions including travel restrictions and drug and alcohol testing.¹¹

Why the Sentencing Recommendation Grew Harsher

Harris’s conduct between the plea and sentencing changed what prosecutors asked for. They told the court she delayed her sentencing hearing 12 times through tactics that included refusing to communicate with her attorney by phone, falsely claiming illness, and citing lack of childcare without documentation.¹² Prosecutors said her ex-husband had been available to help with childcare and noted she had kept the children out of school for 10 consecutive days without explanation.¹³

The government’s original recommendation had been six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. It later revised that request upward to four to ten months of imprisonment, arguing Harris had shown “flagrant disrespect for the law” and was “completely unamenable to court supervision.”¹²

The Sentence

On April 9, 2024, Judge Swain sentenced Harris to one month in federal prison, three months of home confinement, and three years of supervised release. She was ordered to forfeit the $20,000 she received from Project Veritas and to report to prison in July 2024.¹

Judge Swain called Harris’s conduct “despicable” and said she had been driven by greed and an intent to “impact the nation’s political landscape.”¹ Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman told the court Harris stole the diary because she “wanted to damage Ms. Biden’s father” and “make as much money as she could,” adding that “stealing personal belongings of a candidate’s family member, and selling them to an organization to exploit them for political gain, was wrong and illegal no matter the political agenda.”²

Harris’s attorney sought leniency, noting she is a mother of two young children and a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual trauma.¹ Prosecutors pointed to the presentence report, which noted a court in a prior custody dispute had found her testimony “not credible” and her conduct “egregious.”⁴

Ashley Biden’s Letter to the Court

Ashley Biden did not appear at sentencing. In an April 8, 2024, letter to Judge Swain, she wrote that attending “would only increase my pain.” She described the theft as “one of the most heinous forms of bullying” and a “complete violation of my privacy and personal dignity,” and said her journal had been stolen to “peddle grotesque lies by distorting my stream-of-consciousness thoughts.” She wrote that she had been targeted “only because my father happened to be running to be President.”¹⁴

She asked the judge to impose incarceration, arguing that a non-prison sentence would signal it is “okay to violate and exploit others for your own personal gain.” She wrote: “My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a term of incarceration is to ensure that another woman isn’t bullied and shamed like this ever again.”¹⁴ The letter was unsealed on April 25, 2024, at the request of The New York Times.

Georgia Arrest Before Reporting to Prison

On July 8, 2024, shortly before her scheduled surrender, Harris was arrested in McIntosh County, Georgia. She was charged with driving with a suspended license, speeding, possession of an open container, possession of marijuana, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer. She had told a pretrial services officer she was on a one-day road trip to South Carolina. She was detained and transferred to Bureau of Prisons custody to begin her federal sentence a day early.¹³

What Happened to Her Co-Conspirator

Robert Kurlander was sentenced on June 10, 2025. Judge Swain granted a substantial downward departure from the four-to-ten-month guideline range and imposed time served with no supervised release, citing his “prompt and candid” cooperation with prosecutors and acceptance of responsibility.¹⁵ Like Harris, he forfeited his $20,000. The federal case, United States v. Harris (1:22-cr-00457, S.D.N.Y.), was formally terminated on June 12, 2025.¹¹

1
Politico. Florida Woman Sentenced for Stealing Ashley Biden’s Diary
2
ABC News. Florida Woman Sentenced to Month in Prison for Theft of Ashley Biden’s Diary
3
NBC News. Woman Sentenced to Month in Jail for Selling Ashley Biden’s Diary
4
The New York Times. Government Sentencing Memorandum, United States v. Harris
5
Axios. Trump Campaign Was Offered Ashley Biden’s Diary Before Project Veritas
6
Chicago Tribune. How Ashley Biden’s Diary Made Its Way to Project Veritas
7
CBS News. Two Plead Guilty in Scheme to Sell Biden’s Daughter’s Diary
8
U.S. Department of Justice. Florida Residents Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property
9
New York Magazine. Project Veritas, James O’Keefe, and Ashley Biden’s Diary
10
WHYY. Two Plead Guilty in Scheme to Sell Biden’s Daughter’s Diary
11
CourtListener. United States v. Harris, 1:22-cr-00457
12
The Hill. DOJ Seeks Prison Time for Woman Who Stole Ashley Biden’s Diary
13
Law and Crime. Ashley Biden Diary Thief Gets to Start Her Prison Sentence a Day Early
14
CNBC. Ashley Biden in Unsealed Letter to Judge Detailed Pain From Diary Theft
15
Courthouse News Service. Florida Man Who Sold Ashley Biden’s Diary Avoids Prison Time