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Written by: E. George
Published July 16, 2024 @ 5:30 PM ET
MCINTOSH COUNTY, Ga. – One day before the Florida woman who stole and sold President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden’s diary was scheduled to voluntarily surrender to authorities to begin her month-long jail sentence, she was arrested in Georgia for multiple driving offenses. On Monday, July 8, 2024, 42-year-old Aimee Harris from Palm Beach was charged with driving with a suspended license, speeding at 90 miles per hour in a 70 MPH zone, possessing marijuana, possessing an open alcohol container, violating a seat belt law, and obstructing/hindering a law enforcement officer.
Harris was expected to surrender at noon on Tuesday, July 9. The McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office arrest report indicated that she was observed speeding southbound on Interstate 95 near Darien, a town approximately 50 miles north of the Georgia-Florida border.
The United States Attorney’s Office detailed in a letter to the judge that on Sunday, July 7, Harris had notified her supervising pretrial services that she was embarking on a “one-day road trip up to” South Carolina the following day and would return that night.
On Wednesday, July 10, a federal judge approved prosecutors’ requests to order Harris’ detainment by U.S. marshals. Federal marshals in The Peach State transferred her to United States Bureau of Prisons custody “since the state facility where the defendant is being held is also utilized as a federal holding facility.”
Harris’ attorney, Anthony Cecutti, offered no response regarding her arrest.
Concerning Harris’ previous crimes involving the president’s daughter, Manhattan Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain described her actions as “despicable.” She stated that Harris was not only fueled by greed, but she also wished to impact the 2020 presidential election results.
Prosecutors stated in a sentencing memorandum, “She wrongfully exploited her physical access to the intimate belongings of someone whom she did not know personally but knew as a public figure whose property would fetch a handsome price tag. Stealing personal belongings of a candidate’s family member and selling them to an organization to exploit them for political gain was wrong and illegal no matter the political agenda.”
Ashley Biden reportedly had left numerous personal items at a friend’s Delray Beach home when she moved out in June 2020. Federal prosecutors explained that Harris had moved into Biden’s former room and had found her belongings.
Harris conspired with defendant 60-year-old Robert Kurlander in planning what to do with the items, initially offering them to Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, who declined them, and subsequently selling them to the controversial far-right activist group Project Veritas. In August 2022, Harris and Kurlander pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, confessing that they accepted $40,000 total ($20,000 each) from the activist group for the materials.
Although Project Veritas did not officially publish the diary’s contents, subject matter and entries appeared online.
Manhattan prosecutors initially requested a six-month home confinement sentence followed by a three-year supervised release period for Harris; however, the team altered their request to a four to 10-month prison sentence due to the defendant’s repeated efforts to delay her trial.
Prosecutors explained that Harris had engaged in a pattern of ploys to delay her proceedings by “misleading the Court with false information.” She reportedly refused to speak with her lawyer via telephone, claimed that she was ill but produced no medical records, and said she had no child care; however, her ex-husband revealed that he had offered to watch the children and said Harris refused to cooperate.
Her ex-husband added that he was shocked to discover that Harris had previously allowed their children to remain out of school for a period of 10 days without reason.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman emphasized that Harris displayed “a pattern of disrespect for the law and the justice system.” He said she wanted “to make as much money as she could.”
He explained that in addition to the diary, Harris also stole tax documents, clothing, luggage, personal photographs, books, a digital memory card containing information, and “everything she could get her hands on.”
Sobelman added, “Ms. Harris is not the victim in this case. Ms. Biden is the victim in this case.”
Harris’ co-conspirator Kurlander pleaded guilty to his federal charges as well and is scheduled for his sentencing by Swain on October 25, 2024.
These cases are pending.
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