Two Florida residents have pleaded guilty in a scheme to peddle a diary and other items stolen from President Joe Biden’s daughter to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander “sought to profit from their theft of another person’s personal property”, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Harris, from Palm Beach, and Kurlander, of nearby Jupiter, face the possibility of up to five years in prison. They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines.
Harris' lawyer, Sam Talkin, said she “has accepted responsibility for her conduct and looks forward to moving on with her life”.
Kurlander’s lawyer, Florian Miedel, declined to comment.
While authorities didn't identify anyone in the case except the defendants, the details of the investigation have been public for months.
Ashley Biden, the president's daughter, was moving out of a friend's Delray Beach, Florida, home in spring 2020 when she stored the diary and other belongings there, prosecutors said in a court filing.
They said Harris then moved into the same room, found the items and got in touch with Kurlander, who enthused in a text message that he would help her make a “ton of money” from selling it, adding an expletive before “ton”.
The two initially aimed to sell some of the purloined property to then-president Donald Trump's campaign, but a representative turned them down and told them to take the material to the FBI, according to the court papers.
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US President Joe Biden, with his wife Jill Biden and members of his family as they salute the crowd on stage after delivering remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7, 2020. AFP -
Wife: Dr Jill Biden. Jill and Joe met in 1975, when Joe was a senator, after they were set up on a blind date by Joe’s brother, Frank. They married in June 1977 and had one child together, daughter Ashley, as well as raising Hunter and Beau, Joe’s two sons with his first wife, Neilia. Getty Images -
First wife: Neilia Hunter Biden. The President-elect and Neilia were married in August 1966, and had three children, sons Hunter and Beau, and daughter Naomi. Neilia and 13-month-old Naomi were killed in a car crash on December 18, 1972, when their car collided with a trailer-truck. Hunter and Beau sustained injuries, but survived the crash. Getty Images -
Son: Beau Biden. Joe and his first wife, Neilia, welcomed son, Beau in February 1969. He attained the rank of Major in the US army, and was deployed to Iraq in 2008. He later became a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office. He passed away in 2015 from brain cancer at the age of 46. AFP -
Son: Robert Hunter Biden, known as Hunter. Joe and Neilia welcomed Hunter in February 1970. The lawyer and businessman shares three children, Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy, with his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle. He dated his brother Beau’s widow, Hallie, following Beau’s death, and has a further two children, whose names have not been made public, one with Lunden Alexis Roberts, and a son with his wife Melissa Cohen. Reuters -
Daughter: Ashley Biden. Joe and Jill’s only daughter has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. And the 39-year-old, who is married to plastic surgeon Howard Krein, worked as executive director of the Delaware Centre for Justice from 2014 to 2019. She also founded the fashion company Livelihood in 2017. Getty Images -
Granddaughter: Naomi Biden. The eldest of Biden’s grandchildren was named after her late aunt and is the daughter of Hunter and Kathleen. The 27-year-old graduated from Columbia Law School in May 2020 and was a classmate of Tiffany Trump while at the University of Pennsylvania. -
Granddaughter: Finnegan Biden. Hunter and Kathleen’s 20-year-old daughter is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania. She regularly appeared on the campaign trail with her grandfather. AFP -
Granddaughter: Maisy Biden. Younger sister to Naomi and Finnegan, Maisy, 18, is close friends with former First Daughter, Sasha Obama. She enjoys playing basketball, and is an old hand on the campaign trail, having accompanied her grandfather on trips when he was Vice President. AP Photo -
Granddaughter: Natalie Biden. Sixteen-year-old Natalie is the daughter of the late Beau. She campaigned for her grandfather throughout the election, revealing: 'Pop told us that this election would be totally different from any other election ever. He was worried how it would affect his kids.' Reuters -
Grandson: Robert Hunter Biden II. Natalie’s younger brother (second from left) was named after his uncle. Although he is rarely pictured in public, he appeared with his sister and cousins reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in a video at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Twitter / demconvention -
Sister: Valerie Biden Owens (right). Highly active in her older brother Joe’s political campaigns since he first ran for the Senate back in the '70s, Owens served as a US senior adviser to the United Nations General Assembly and is vice chair of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. AFP -
Brother: Frank Biden. The youngest of the four senior Biden siblings, the troubled 66-year-old businessman lives in Florida. He was arrested in 2003 for DUI and petty theft. He was arrested again in 2004 for driving with a suspended license, and was ordered to attend rehab. 'No one anticipated this. It’s spontaneous,' he told the 'Palm Beach Post' of his brother’s win. 'It's overwhelming.' Getty Images -
Brother: Jim Biden. Seventy-year-old Jim has been at his brother’s side throughout the campaign. 'He has been at his older brother’s side at nearly every critical juncture in Joe’s personal and political life,' notes political website Propublica. 'As fundraiser for his brother’s first Senate race in 1972, he helped launch Joe’s political career.' Getty Images -
Daughter-in-law: Hallie Biden. The widow of the late Beau Biden, who she married in 2002, 45-year-old Hallie began dating her brother-in-law Hunter in 2016, a year after Beau died. 'We were sharing a very specific grief,' Hunter told 'The New Yorker'. 'I started to think of Hallie as the only person in my life who understood my loss.' Reuters -
Daughter-in-law: Melissa Cohen. The South African filmmaker married Hunter in May 2019, and the pair has a child together, a son, whose name or photos they have chosen not to reveal. Hunter proposed less than a week after their first date, with then-Vice President Biden telling Cohen: 'Thank you for giving my son the courage to love again.' AP Photo -
Son-in-law: Howard Krein. Married to Joe’s daughter, Ashley, the pair was introduced by her half-brother, Beau, and they married in 2012. Krein, 39, is assistant professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University and a founding partner and co-director of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s Facial Aesthetic and Reconstructive Centre. AFP
The campaign “can't use this”, Kurlander explained to Harris in a September 2020 text message, adding: “It has to be done a different way.”
Their next stop was Project Veritas, which paid for the two to bring some of the material — including the diary and a digital device with family photos — to a New York luxury hotel, prosecutors said.
Project Veritas staffers met with Kurlander and Harris in New York and agreed to pay an initial $10,000, saying more money could come if they retrieved more of Ms Biden’s items from the home, partly in order to authenticate the diary, according to the court filing.
Back in Florida, Kurlander texted Harris a blunt assessment of what would come of the exchange, prosecutors said.
“They are in a sketchy business and here they are taking what’s literally a stolen diary and info ... and trying to make a story that will ruin Ashley Biden's life and possibly affect the impending presidential election,” he wrote, according to the court papers.
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The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina has hosted PGA golf tournaments and has stellar views of the Atlantic Ocean. Photo: Kiawah Island Golf Resort -
US President Joe Biden rides a bicycle on the beach on Kiawah Island. Reuters -
Mr Biden and a pack of Secret Service agents take a beach ride. AFP -
First lady Jill Biden rides her bicycle along the beach while on vacation on Kiawah Island. AFP -
Mr Biden is an avid bike rider. Reuters -
Mr Biden and his son, Hunter, attend mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church on John's Island, South Carolina. AFP -
Hunter Biden, his wife Melissa Cohen and their son Beau follow the presidential couple as they board Marine One at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. Reuters -
Hunter Biden holds his son Beau's hand as they walk down the steps of the aircraft. AP -
The beast, as the presidential limousine is known, goes wherever the Bidens go. AP -
Mr Biden walks with grandson Beau upon their return to Washington. AP -
Mr Biden with daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen leaving the Kiawah Island Beach Club at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. AP -
Mr Biden with son Hunter. AP -
Mr Biden walks on the beach with granddaughter Natalie and daughter Ashley in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. AP -
Mr Biden introduces his granddaughter to the members of the media as they walk on the beach together with daughter Ashley. AP
He added that the two needed “to tread even more carefully” and get “anything worthwhile” out of the Delray Beach house, according to the court papers.
Prosecutors said Kurlander and Harris took Ms Biden's stored tax documents, clothes and luggage as Kurlander pressed Project Veritas in a message to commit to a bigger payout: “We are taking huge risks. This isn't fair.”
A Project Veritas staffer soon flew to Florida, the employee shipped the items to New York and the group paid Harris and Kurlander $20,000 apiece, prosecutors said.
Project Veritas 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.
“Project Veritas’s news gathering was ethical and legal" in the diary affair, the group said in a statement on Thursday. The organisation said earlier that it turned the journal over to law enforcement after receiving it from “tipsters” who maintained that it had been abandoned in a room.
"A journalist’s lawful receipt of material later alleged to be stolen is routine, commonplace and protected by the First Amendment,” Project Veritas added on Thursday.
Neither Project Veritas nor any staffers have been charged with a crime.
The FBI searched the group's New York offices and the homes of some of its employees as part of the investigation.
Generally, media organizations aren’t culpable for receiving material that might have been stolen, if they weren’t involved in the theft. But there can be criminal liability for orchestrating theft and then knowingly paying for stolen material.
"There is no First Amendment protection for the theft and interstate transport of stolen property," the US attorney's office wrote in a court filing last year.
Mr O’Keefe has said that Project Veritas ultimately could not confirm that the diary belonged to Ms Biden. The group did not publish information from it.
Ashley Biden, a 41-year-old social worker, is the daughter of the president and of first lady Jill Biden. His first daughter, Naomi and his first wife Neilia were killed in a 1972 car accident.
A White House wedding: Biden's granddaughter to wed in November
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Naomi Biden, the granddaughter of US President Joe Biden, and her fiance Peter Neal ride bikes in Nantucket, Massachusetts. AFP -
US President Joe Biden departs The Hamilton restaurant, where he had lunch with granddaughters Finnegan and Naomi in Washington this year. EPA -
Naomi Biden and Peter Neal walk to a vehicle as they depart with US President Joe Biden from the White House in Washington. EPA -
Commander, the Biden family’s new puppy, plays with Peter Neal outside the White House. Reuters -
Naomi Biden and Peter Neal, stop their bikes in Nantucket, Massachusetts, for her grandfather President Joe Biden and his wife Dr Jill Biden to pass in a motorcade. AP -
Joe Biden's grandchildren, Naomi Biden and Robert Hunter Biden, walk her dog Charlie at Nantucket Memorial Airport in Massachusetts last Thanksgiving. EPA -
Joe, Jill and Naomi Biden walk across the South Lawn of the White House after returning on Marine One from a weekend in Wilmington, Delaware. AP -
Joe and Jill Biden with their daughter Ashley Biden and granddaughters Finnegan and Naomi pose for a selfie during an Independence Day celebration in Washington. Reuters -
Joe Biden and his granddaughters, including Naomi, are welcomed at Government House in Auckland, New Zealand. Getty
