What are we doing? Seriously, as a country, what the serious eff are we doing here??
The DOJ announced on Thursday yet another crime in the world of politics, one we were not aware of at all — just a completely gross, despicable heist: the theft of the diary of the President’s daughter.
It sounds like the plot of an Olsen Twins movie or something, right? But it’s all too real. Two Floridians — Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58 — pleaded guilty, according to the Justice Department, to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property — that stolen property being the diary of Joe Biden‘s daughter.
All just to help Donald Trump win the election. Ugh.
Related: Trump Is Basically Threatening The DOJ With Violence Now
Ashley Biden‘s name wasn’t mentioned in the official statement, but multiple sources have confirmed what the stolen property was. US Attorney Damian Williams detailed:
“Harris and Kurlander stole personal property from an immediate family member of a candidate for national political office. They sold the property to an organization in New York for $40,000 and even returned to take more of the victim’s property when asked to do so.”
How did this happen?
Apparently Ms. Harris was staying at a private residence Delray Beach, Florida — the home of a former boyfriend — in July 2020. She learned that Ashley Biden had previously been staying there during the pandemic — and had stored a personal, handwritten journal there when she left in June. In addition to some very personal entries, Ashley, then 39 years old, also apparently had some tax info and family photos there in a bag she planned to come back and get at a later date.
When Harris realized what was there, she stole the journal — and tapped Kurlander to help her sell it. But who would buy such a thing?? Right wing media, obviously. Because that’s where we are.
The inaccurately named Project Veritas, who have been caught trying to fake other political scandals in the past, were hoping to come up with some kind of story that could “ruin” Biden’s daughter’s life, according to one of the defendants. Why? The main goal, of course, was to “try and affect the election.” Sigh.
We have no idea how much the right wing’s focus on Hunter Biden has changed anyone’s opinion of the POTUS. Frankly we’ve always found it kind of boring — he’s admitted to a lot of awful behavior, he even wrote a book about it. It’s clear he’s got some severe problems… but he’s not the president! But there certainly must be those out there who believe the insinuations that Biden broke the law to help out his son. And that’s clearly what Project Veritas was hoping for. Another Hunter they could write stories about to try to even the playing field with the many, many, many legal and ethical scandals of Donald Trump and his family. And they were willing to buy stolen property of a government official’s family member to do it?
According to court documents, the pair were paid $20,000 each for the diary. And they were apparently encouraged to go get more. Per the docs:
“During that meeting, Harris described the circumstances of how she had obtained the property, and provided the property to the Organization. After the meeting, and at the Organization’s request, HARRIS and KURLANDER returned to Florida to obtain more of the Victim’s property in order to provide it to the Organization.”
Will Project Veritas face charges for buying the property they allegedly knew to be stolen? We’ll have to see, we guess, but it doesn’t look like it. We mean, why wouldn’t they charge them at the same time? For what it’s worth, the organization released a statement on Thursday in response to the news of the guilty pleas, saying:
“Project Veritas’ news gathering was ethical and legal. A journalist’s lawful receipt of material later alleged to be stolen is routine, commonplace, and protected by the First Amendment.”
Yeah, none of this sounds ethical at all. But we’re guessing unless Harris and Kurlander could prove they were instructed to steal more, they’re probably in the clear? They never published any of the journal’s contents, though it’s not clear if that’s because they thought better of it or because there was nothing salacious enough. Another conservative site apparently did publish the contents two weeks before the election. We guess no one noticed? It’s the first we’re hearing of it anyway. Like we said, it just wasn’t salacious enough we guess.
Speaking of salacious, apparently the pair went to another group to sell the info: the Trump campaign!
According to the docs, Harris and Kurlander attended a fundraiser “with the intent of showing the Victim’s stolen property to a campaign representative of Candidate-2, hoping that the political campaign would purchase it.” The campaign representative turned them down, per the docs:
“A representative of Candidate-2’s political campaign conveyed to AIMEE HARRIS and ROBERT KURLANDER, the defendants, that the campaign was not interested in purchasing the property and advised HARRIS and KURLANDER to provide the items to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Well, that’s something we guess.
The fact Project Veritas was willing to shell out big bucks for a woman’s stolen diary — not even to find evidence of an existing crime they were tracking down or anything, just because they hoped to find something scandalous — is just so gross.
[Image via Jimmy Kimmel Live/TODAY/YouTube/HBO Max.]
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