DOJ demands prison time for Ashley Biden diary thief 

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a New York district judge to sentence the woman who stole the diary of her first daughter, Ashley Biden, to four to 10 months in prison for the crime.

​​Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had initially sought a sentence of six months of home confinement, followed by three years of supervised release, for Aimee Harris, who pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiracy to with a view to committing criminal acts. interstate transportation of stolen property in connection with the newspaper theft.

Harris has requested that his sentencing hearing date be postponed 12 times, according to prosecutors, who argue that his apology is an attempt to “unduly delay” his punishment and deserves a harsher sentence.

“The defendant’s sentence must also take into account the manner in which she abused the administration of justice throughout this legal proceeding,” reads the filing filed by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams with the District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

“The defendant has repeatedly and consistently used tactics to unduly delay these proceedings, including misleading the court with false information to justify late and undeserved adjournment requests, refusing to appear when asked requested and failing to comply with court orders to disclose or produce certain information,” the document states.

“By this conduct, the accused demonstrated a complete disregard for the orders of the Court and the proper administration of this legal process.”

Harris came across the first daughter’s diary, tax records, private family photographs and her cell phone in September 2020, while staying at a house in Delray Beach, Florida, where the president’s daughter previously lived Biden, according to the DOJ.

The diary contained “highly personal entries,” the DOJ noted.

After stealing Ashley Biden’s property, Harris recruited co-defendant Robert Kurlander to help sell it, the government said, knowing it belonged to “an immediate family member of a former government official of the time who was a candidate for national political office”.

The duo sold the paper to conservative media outlet Project Veritas before the 2020 election for $40,000.

The outlet did not publish the diary’s contents, but purported entries were later published online.

“A sentence involving no period of incarceration would be wholly insufficient to reflect the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct, including her apparent belief that she is above the law and has no need for comply with the orders of this Court,” prosecutors argued in their request for a revised sentencing. .

Harris is scheduled to be sentenced April 9.

Prosecutors warned that if she does not appear again, they could seek an enhancement to obstruction of justice.

Kurlander, who also pleaded guilty in the case, has a sentencing hearing scheduled for April 12.