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What exact allegations did Ashley Biden publicly make against Joe Biden and in which interviews or documents were they stated?
Executive summary
Available sources show Ashley Biden’s highly publicized statements about her father center on material that surfaced from a stolen diary (sold to Project Veritas and later publicized) in which she wrote that showers with her father as a child were “probably not appropriate” and that she wondered “Was I molested. I think so,” but the reporting is driven largely by leaked diary excerpts and court filings about the diary’s theft rather than by a contemporaneous, on‑the‑record interview of Ashley making a formal public accusation [1] [2] [3]. Criminal cases and journalistic fact‑checks emphasize the provenance and authenticity disputes over the diary and note the FBI did not corroborate the diary’s alleged salacious contents in its public statements [2] [3] [1].
1. What exact statements are attributed to Ashley Biden — and where they appear
The principal allegations attributed to Ashley Biden in public reporting come from passages published from a diary that prosecutors say was stolen and sold to Project Veritas. Snopes and other outlets report diary entries describing childhood showers with her father described as “probably not appropriate,” and later language reported as “Was I molested. I think so” [1] [4]. Reuters and PBS reporting focus on the legal trail around the diary: two Florida residents pleaded guilty to stealing Ashley Biden’s diary and selling it to Project Veritas for money, and court filings and reporting identify that the diary and related items were involved [2] [5]. PolitiFact and Reuters note Project Veritas’ involvement and the controversy over whether the diary’s contents are authenticated [3] [2].
2. Which interviews or documents contain those statements
The specific lines cited above appear in the leaked diary material tied to the Project Veritas story and to subsequent republication by outlets such as the National File; they are not presented as coming from a broadcast interview where Ashley Biden herself read them on camera. Court filings, guilty pleas for theft of the diary, and investigative reporting describe the diary’s sale and publication [2] [5] [1]. Snopes’ fact‑check recounts the diary passages and the Project Veritas phone call material that suggested possession of the diary; Reuters reports on the legal case about the diary’s theft and sale [1] [2]. Available sources do not show a formal, on‑the‑record sit‑down interview in which Ashley Biden publicly and directly made a detailed allegation against her father beyond the diary entries and the fact that the diary was acknowledged as hers in some reporting contexts [1] [2].
3. How reliable the source material is — provenance and authentication disputes
Reporting stresses provenance problems: prosecutors said two people pleaded guilty to stealing the diary and selling it to Project Veritas, and court papers describe payments and intent to harm a campaign; Project Veritas paid intermediaries and has been criticized for its methods [2]. PolitiFact explicitly states the FBI did not confirm the diary’s alleged contents or validate salacious social‑media claims tied to it [3]. Snopes documents Project Veritas’ possession and payment history and notes the group initially withheld full publication because of authentication concerns; later republication by other outlets complicates the chain of custody [1]. In short, the underlying document exists in reporting, but its unauthorized acquisition and contested chain of custody have been central to how the material entered public view [2] [1] [3].
4. What Joe Biden and others publicly said in response (context from reporting)
When separate sexual‑misconduct allegations (Tara Reade) surfaced in 2020, Joe Biden publicly denied that “it never, never happened” in an MSNBC interview and said women should be heard, a line widely reported [6]. That allegation is distinct from Ashley Biden’s diary material; the reporting that focuses on Ashley’s diary treats it as private writings that were stolen and later sold, rather than as an allegation Joe Biden publicly addressed in the same form [6] [2].
5. Competing viewpoints and editorial agendas in the coverage
Conservative outlets and some commentators have treated the diary entries as evidence of serious misconduct and criticized Democrats for not treating it as they treat allegations about other politicians; other fact‑checkers and major outlets emphasize the illegal theft, disputed authentication, and FBI limitations in confirming contents [7] [3] [1]. Reporting from Reuters and PBS focuses on legal facts about theft and public responses, while partisan commentary frames the diary either as a smoking gun or as weaponized stolen property — an implicit agenda that readers should factor into credibility assessments [2] [6] [7].
6. Reporting limitations and what is not found in current reporting
Available sources document diary passages attributed to Ashley Biden and the legal case about the diary’s theft and sale, but they do not show Ashley Biden giving a detailed, on‑the‑record public interview where she formally accuses her father in the language quoted; likewise, the FBI did not publicly confirm the diary’s alleged salacious content [1] [3] [2]. Claims about wider corroboration or formal criminal findings tied to those diary passages are not found in the current reporting [3] [2].
Bottom line: public allegations attributed to Ashley Biden appear primarily in leaked diary excerpts reported by multiple outlets; those excerpts describe troubling childhood experiences but came into public view through theft and contested publication, and major fact‑checkers and reporting emphasize provenance and authentication questions [1] [2] [3].