American social worker and daughter of the U.S. President Ashley Biden speaks on stage at the Human Rights Campaign Los Angeles 2024 Dinner at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, March 23, 2024.
Michael Tran | AFP | Getty Images
Ashley Biden, President Joe Biden’s daughter, wrote to a judge saying she would not attend the criminal sentencing earlier this month of the woman who stole his newspaper because “it would not only increase my pain.
The highly emotional letter was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain more than three weeks after the judge sentenced Aimee Harris to one month in federal prison and three months of home detention.
“My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a sentence of incarceration is to ensure that another woman never experiences bullying and shaming like this again,” Biden wrote. “The despair I have often felt will never truly go away. But I ask Your Honor to hold Ms. Harris accountable so that she will think twice before doing this to anyone else.”
Biden also asked Swain to sentence the Florida resident to prison followed by a lengthy period of probation, according to the letter unveiled Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
The letter was unsealed at the request of the New York Times, whose lawyer David McCaw pointed out to Swain that Biden and prosecutors did not object to it being made public, while Harris did not take no position on the request.
Harris, 41, was also sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to forfeit the $20,000 she received for selling the stolen newspaper.
Harris pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiring two years earlier with Robert Kurlander, 61, to steal Biden’s diary and other items from the Florida home where Biden had previously lived, and to transport them beyond state lines to sell to the right-wing group Project. Veritas.
Project Veritas did not publish the paper, but another right-wing media outlet did, shortly before the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his daughter Ashley Biden attend a Juneteenth concert at the White House in Washington, United States, June 13, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Harris was motivated to steal the newspaper to politically harm President Biden, a prosecutor said at her sentencing.
Kurlander, who also pleaded guilty in the case, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 25.
A Biden lawyer attended Harris’ sentencing on April 9. The lawyer had said he would not add anything to what Biden said in his letter to Sweeney.
“I am deeply saddened to have to write this letter because my personal journal was stolen and sold for profit,” Biden wrote in the April 8 letter.
“The purpose of the theft, I suppose, was so that I could peddle grotesque lies by distorting the flow of my thoughts,” Biden wrote. “The reason I have decided not to attend tomorrow’s sentencing in person is that it would only increase my pain. Nevertheless, I am writing to ask Your Honor to sentence the accused to a prison sentence.”
Biden said Harris’ theft of his diary and other items “constitutes one of the most heinous forms of intimidation, not to mention a complete violation of my privacy and personal dignity.”
“After being the victim of a crime in my early 20s, I developed post-traumatic stress disorder,” Biden wrote, without detailing the nature of that crime.
“The diary that was stolen was part of my efforts to heal. I am a private citizen, targeted only because my father was running for president. In other words, the extensive work I did to overcome my trauma was undone by Ms. Harris’s actions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his daughter Ashley Biden attend a Juneteenth concert at the White House in Washington, United States, June 13, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Biden also wrote: “The defendant’s actions have created a constant environment of anxiety, fear, and intimidation in which my most intimate thoughts are constantly distorted and manipulated. »
She also wrote that despite the theft occurring more than three years ago, when Joe Biden was running for president, “because of the publicity it generated — exactly as Ms. Harris intended — I I am constantly re-traumatized by it.
“I will always have to accept that my personal diary can be viewed online,” Biden wrote. “Repeatedly, I hear others grossly misinterpret my formerly private writings and make false accusations that defame me and the people I love.”
“Her actions were not only re-traumatizing to me, but constituted horrific trauma in themselves. This continued harm is a direct result of Ms. Harris’ intentional actions,” the letter states.
In asking Sweeney to sentence Harris to prison and a lengthy period of probation, Ashley wrote, “She should be held accountable for what she did.” »
“Not only has she demonstrated a complete lack of morality, but she also lacks respect for the rule of law,” Biden wrote. “I’ve spent much of my life trying to advocate for those who can’t find their voice. I’m lucky to have found mine, and I use it today – and every day – to make sure bullies are held accountable for their actions.”
“Finally, I fear that a non-incarceration sentence sends a message – to her and others like her – that it is acceptable to rape and exploit others for one’s own personal gain, regardless of the humiliation and the pain it causes,” Biden said. wrote. “Please send a message that these types of harmful criminal actions will not be tolerated.”
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