The Department of Justice asked a federal judge Tuesday to sentence Aimee Harris, who pleaded guilty to stealing first daughter Ashley Biden's diary, to be sentenced to four to 10 months in prison for the crime.
In a letter to chief district court Judge Taylor Swain, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams and other federal prosecutors wrote, “At bottom, the defendant’s flagrant disrespect for the law, including the orders of this Court -- even after pleading guilty in this case -- demonstrates an abdication of responsibility for her conduct and strongly militates for an incarceratory sentence."
The prosecutors said that Harris had requested the sentencing hearing be delayed 12 times since pleading guilty in August 2022 to the theft of the diary, tax records, a cell phone and other personal items.
She cited sickness, childcare and other legal representation issues, among other reasons for the postponements.
“The defendant has repeatedly and consistently engaged in tactics to improperly delay this proceeding, including by misleading the Court with false information to justify belated and unmerited requests for adjournments, refusing to appear when directed, and failing to comply with court orders to disclose or produce certain information,” the letter said.
“Through this pattern of behavior, the defendant has shown a complete disregard for the Court’s orders and for the orderly administration of this judicial proceeding,” the prosecutors added.
They argued "as sentence involving merely probation will not be sufficient to deter the defendant from continuing to flout the law."
In 2022, Harris, along with Robert Kurlander, pleaded guilty "to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property involving the theft of personal belongings of an immediate family member of a then-former government official who was a candidate for national political office."
Harris took the items during a stay around September 2020 at a Delray Beach, Florida home where Ashley Biden had previously been living. She had continued to store some of her things there.
In a 2022 news release, Williams said Harris and Kurlander sold the stolen Biden property "to an organization in New York for $40,000 and even returned to take more of the victim’s property when asked to do so. 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.”
The New York Post reported the organization Harris and Kurlander sold the diary to was Project Veritas.
According to the DOJ, the diary contained, "highly personal entries."
Project Veritas did not publish the journal but purported entries, including involving now President Joe Biden, later emerged online.
In March 2022, the FBI raided the home of conservative Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe and two reporters who worked for the organization.
“The government’s invasion of our First Amendment rights should send shivers down the spine of every journalist around the country,” O’Keefe said in a video released at the time.
BREAKING VIDEO: Unconstitutional Pre-Dawn FBI Raid on Project Veritas Journalist Shows Armed Agents Clutching Weapons, Tossing Belongings, and Ransacking Home at Direction of Biden DOJ
“LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS!”#VeritasRaids pic.twitter.com/w0z0IwmeEh
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) March 15, 2022
“In 2020, we lawfully received material from sources concerning Ashley Biden’s diary and what it said about her father, then presidential candidate Joe Biden,” he recounted in the video.
“We ultimately decided not to publish the story and worked with local law enforcement to return these materials to her,” O'Keefe said.
