(NewsNation) — Two Florida residents, Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander, pleaded guilty to selling the stolen diary of President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley, as well as other items, to the conservative group Project Veritas, prosecutors said Thursday.
Harris and Kurlander admitted they took part in a “conspiracy to transport stolen materials” from Florida, where Ashley Biden was living, to Project Veritas in New York, the New York Times reported.
Harris and Kurlander “sought to profit from their theft of another person’s personal property, and they now stand convicted of a federal felony as a result,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ office said in a statement.
Harris’ lawyer, Sam Talkin, said she “has accepted responsibility for her conduct and looks forward to moving on with her life,” while Kurlander’s lawyer, Florian Miedel, declined to comment, according to the Associated Press.
Both Harris, 40, and Kurlander, 58, could get up to five years in prison when sentenced.
Authorities didn’t identify anyone but the defendants, but details of the investigation were laid out in court filings and public statements.
Ashley Biden stored a diary, a digital device with family photos, and other items in a friend’s home in Delray Beach, Florida. Harris later moved into the same room and found the items, according to The Associated Press.
Harris then got in touch with Kurlander, who said in a text message that he would help her make a ton of money from selling the diary, with an expletive before “ton.”
Axios reported that Harris and Kurlander approached former President Donald Trump’s campaign about buying them. That offer was rejected by campaign officials, however, who told them to take the materials to the FBI.
Their next stop was Project Veritas.
After meeting with Project Veritas staffers in New York, Harris and Kurlander were sent back to Florida to retrieve more items from the home. The two were paid $20,000 apiece by Project Veritas, according to Axios.
Project Veritas, which identifies itself as a news organization, is best known for conducting hidden camera stings that have embarrassed news outlets, labor organizations and Democratic politicians.
“Project Veritas’s news gathering was ethical and legal” in the diary affair, the group said in a statement Thursday.
Neither the organization nor any of its staff has been charged to date, and Axios reported that Project Veritas did not publish the diary.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
