A mother has been jailed for a month after stealing the daughter of US President Joe Biden’s diary and selling it to a right-wing activist group.
Aimee Harris had initially tried to sell Ashley Biden’s private writings to Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2020.
Ms Biden’s father ran against then-president Mr Trump during the election that year.
Harris was tearful in court as she apologised for selling the diary to the Project Veritas conservative group, adding she regretted making Ms Biden’s life and childhood public.
A lawyer for the president’s daughter was observing from the Manhattan federal courtroom’s spectator section.
Harris had found the diary and other items at a friend’s home in Delray Beach, Florida, in 2020.
Prosecutors said Ms Biden believed her items were safely stored there after she stayed at the property herself in spring of the same year.
Joe Biden says Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to Gaza is a ‘mistake’
What did Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson say about Joe Biden and the US election in Fox News interview?
Biden’s policy in Gaza ‘might change’ if Israel doesn’t change its tactics. What would that look like?
Assistant US attorney Robert Sobelman said Harris stole her diary, a digital storage card, books, clothing, luggage and “everything she could get her hands on” in the hopes she “could make as much money as she could”.
“She wanted to damage Ms Biden’s father,” he said.
The mother-of-two pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2022, admitting she received $20,000 (£15,765) of the $40,000 (£31,530) that was paid by Project Veritas for the personal items that belonged to Ms Biden.
Project Veritas, founded in 2010, identifies itself as a news organisation. It is best known for conducting hidden camera stings that have embarrassed news outlets, labour organisations and Democratic politicians.
Harris told a court she does not believe she is “above the law” after a prosecutor called for a prison sentence following her failure to appear at numerous sentencing dates.
She had said she was unable to appear because she was consumed with caring for her two children, aged eight and six.
Harris told Judge Laura Taylor Swain at Manhattan federal court: “I’m a survivor of long-term domestic abuse and sexual trauma.”
Sentencing her to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing the items, Judge Swan called Harris’ crimes “despicable”.
Announcing the sentence, the judge noted that Harris and a co-defendant, Robert Kurlander, of nearby Jupiter, Florida, had first tried unsuccessfully to sell Ms Biden’s belongings to the Trump 2020 campaign.
The judge said Harris, besides being motivated by greed, had hoped to impact the nation’s political landscape.
Kurlander, who has not yet been sentenced, and Harris, had each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines.
Read more:
Arizona court says Civil War-era law can be used to ban abortions
Alleged ‘doomsday’ cult leader goes on trial for child murders
Stabbed police dog saved after being rushed to hospital
Defence lawyer Anthony Cecutti said Harris should not serve prison time, saying she had lived a traumatic life and was having to care for her children while recovering from abuse and violence.
“She carries the shame and stigma of her actions,” he said.
However, Mr Sobelman called for a prison sentence, saying Harris had exhibited a “pattern of disrespect for the law and the justice system”.
“Ms Harris is not the victim in this case,” Mr Sobelman said. “Ms Biden is the victim in this case.”
Harris was told to report to prison in July.
As she left the court, she declined to speak.
