NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida mother was sentenced Tuesday to one month in prison and three months of home confinement for theft and sale. President Joe BidenThe daughter’s diary from four years ago to the conservative group Project Veritas.
Aimee Harris was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Laura Taylor Swainwho called the Palm Beach, Fla., woman’s actions “despicable.”
Harris pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in August 2022, admitting that she received $20,000 of the $40,000 paid by Project Veritas for personal items belonging to the president’s daughter. Ashley Biden.
Project Veritas, founded in 2010, identifies itself as a news organization. He is best known for leading hidden camera operations that embarrassed the media, labor organizations and Democratic politicians.
Harris tearfully apologized for allowing the sale of Ashley Biden’s private writings after finding the diary and other items at a friend’s home in Delray Beach, Fla., in 2020, where prosecutors said Ashley Biden believed her items were safely stored after staying there temporarily. spring 2020.
“I don’t believe I’m above the law,” Harris said after a prosecutor asked for a prison sentence after she failed to show up for numerous sentencing dates on the grounds that she was busy take care of her two children, aged 8 and 6.
“I am a survivor of domestic violence and long-term sexual trauma,” she told the judge.
As an attorney for Ashley Biden watched from the spectator section of the courtroom, Harris apologized to the president’s daughter, saying she regretted making her childhood and her life public. life.
In announcing the sentence, Swain noted that Harris and a co-defendant, Robert Kurlander, of Jupiter, Fla., initially tried unsuccessfully to sell Ashley Biden’s assets to President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
The judge said Harris, in addition to being motivated by greed, had hoped to have an impact on the country’s political landscape.
Kurlander, who has not yet been sentenced, and Harris, had each pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen property across state lines.
Defense attorney Anthony Cecutti asked for no prison time, citing his client’s traumatic life and her efforts to care for her children while recovering from abuse and violence.
“She carries the shame and stigma of her actions,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman called for prison time, saying Harris showed a “disrespect for the law and the justice system.”
“MS. Harris is not the victim in this case,” Sobelman said. “MS. Biden is the victim in this matter.
He said that during the summer of 2020, Harris stole Ashley Biden’s diary, a digital storage card, books, clothing, luggage and “anything else she could get her hands on” in the hope that she “could make as much money as she could.”
“She wanted to harm Ms. Biden’s father,” he said.
Harris was asked to report to prison in July. As she left the courthouse, she refused to speak.
Ashley Biden’s lawyer also declined to comment, although he submitted a letter to the judge on his client’s behalf a day earlier that was not immediately entered into the court record.
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