UPDATE (5/13/2024): This story has been edited to include information from a letter Ashley Biden submitted to a judge ahead of Harris’ sentencing.
Florida woman Aimee Harris was sentenced on April 9, 2024, to a month in prison and three months of home confinement for stealing President Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary and selling it to Project Veritas, a conservative group known for its hidden camera stings.
In the wake of the sentencing, claims that have circulated in the past about Ashley Biden’s diary began popping up on social media again.
Some viral posts allege that President Biden acted inappropriately with his daughter, as described in a screenshot of a purported entry from Ashley Biden’s diary.
One post with tens of thousands of views suggests that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed the contents of Ashley’s diary.
“The real story is Biden’s DOJ officially confirmed that Joe Biden inappropriately showered with his daughter & made her feel uncomfortable,” the post says.
Several readers have also asked us to VERIFY related claims about Ashley Biden’s diary.
THE QUESTION
Did the Department of Justice confirm the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, the Department of Justice has not confirmed the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.
WHAT WE FOUND
Neither the Department of Justice nor any other federal agency have confirmed the alleged contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.
The alleged excerpt that’s been shared online was originally published in October 2020 by the National File, a conservative news outlet that has been known to share unreliable information. Federal authorities and other credible media organizations have not corroborated that the diary entries shared by the National File are legitimate.
In August 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and the New York FBI office announced that Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander had pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges “involving the theft of personal belongings of an immediate family member of a then-former government official who was a candidate for a national political office.” Kurlander hasn’t been sentenced yet.
The plea deal announcement and charging documents in the case did not have any information about the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary, contrary to the implications in online posts.
Ashley’s name isn’t even mentioned in the announcement and court records, though the Associated Press and other news outlets have named her as the theft victim.
Ashley Biden addressed the stolen diary in an April 8 letter to a judge requesting jail time for Aimee Harris after her conviction.
Biden acknowledged in the letter that people can view her personal journal online, but did not confirm the legitimacy of any specific entries.
She also said people have “grossly” misinterpreted her “once-private writings” and lobbed “false accusations that defame” her character “and those of the people I love.”
Here’s an excerpt from Ashley Biden’s full letter to the judge obtained by the New York Times:
“After being the victim of a crime in my early twenties, I developed PTSD. The journal that was stolen was part of my efforts to heal. I am a private citizen, targeted only because my father happened to be running to be President. In other words, the extensive work I have done to move past my trauma was undone by Ms. Harris's actions. The defendant's actions have created a constant environment of anxiety, fear, and intimidation in which my innermost thoughts are constantly distorted and manipulated.
Although this criminal act happened more than three years ago, because of the publicity it drew — exactly as Ms. Harris intended — I am constantly re-traumatized by it. I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online. Repeatedly, I hear others grossly misinterpret my once-private writings and lob false accusations that defame my character and those of the people I love. Her actions were not only re-traumatizing to me, but constituted a horrific trauma in and of themselves. This ongoing harm is a direct result of Ms. Harris's intentional actions.”
What we know about the case and Ashley Biden’s diary
Prosecutors said in the charging documents that Ashley was moving out of a friend’s home in Delray Beach, Florida, in the spring of 2020 when she stored the diary and other belongings there.
Aimee Harris then moved into the same room and found Ashley’s belongings there. When Harris contacted Kurlander, he said he would help her make a “ton of money” from selling Ashley’s belongings.
The two initially tried to sell some of the stolen property to former President Donald Trump’s campaign, which turned them down and told them to take the items to the FBI, court documents say.
Harris and Kurlander then went to an organization that the AP and other news outlets have identified as Project Veritas, which paid $40,000 for the diary and other items belonging to Ashley Biden.
Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe said in November 2021 that “tipsters” who claimed to have a copy of Ashley Biden’s diary contacted the group in late 2020. But Project Veritas ultimately did not publish any information from the diary because it could not confirm it actually belonged to Ashley Biden.
The National File published what it said was a digital copy of Ashley Biden’s diary provided by a “Project Veritas whistleblower.” That digital copy included the excerpt alleging President Biden showered with his daughter that has been shared in related social media posts.
But neither Ashley nor federal law enforcement have confirmed that the entries published by the National File are legitimate.
The FBI declined to comment and referred VERIFY to the Department of Justice, which did not respond to our email by the time of publication.
Ashley Biden’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
