Ashley biden diary
Executive summary
The episode commonly referred to as "Ashley Biden's diary" centers on a personal journal that was stolen from a Florida home in 2020, sold into conservative media channels, and later acknowledged by Ashley Biden as having been viewed online; the theft prompted criminal prosecutions and a debate over what the diary proves about private allegations it contains [1] [2] [3]. Reporting shows the diary’s existence and the criminal scheme to sell it are established, while disputes remain about which outlets authenticated or published its contents and how readers should treat sensational claims drawn from private writings [4] [3] [5].
1. The theft and criminal case: how prosecutors say it unfolded
Federal court records and reporting state that two Florida residents, Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander, admitted in 2022 to conspiring to steal property belonging to Ashley Biden from a Delray Beach home where she had stored items, and to transporting those items across state lines to sell them to the conservative group Project Veritas for payment reportedly totaling about $40,000 [4] [6] [7]. Harris pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to one month in prison, three months of home confinement, three years’ probation and ordered to forfeit funds she received; prosecutors argued at sentencing that the theft was politically motivated to harm President Biden [1] [2] [5].
2. Who bought it, who published it, and what they say
Project Veritas is documented as having paid intermediaries for the materials and met sources in New York, but the organization’s founder has said Project Veritas ultimately did not publish the diary and has disputed claims that it authenticated the material; another right‑leaning outlet, The National File, published what it said was a copy of the diary in late 2020 [4] [3] [5]. Reporting shows Project Veritas transferred possession or handled the materials, and that some conservative outlets circulated diary pages around the 2020 election, which amplified the political impact regardless of journalistic vetting [4] [5].
3. Ashley Biden’s own statements and the question of authentication
Fact‑checkers including Snopes updated prior assessments after Ashley Biden wrote an April 2024 letter to a federal judge saying she was “deeply saddened” that her private journal was stolen and could be viewed online; Snopes described that letter as sufficient to change its status on the diary’s authenticity from “Unproven” to “True,” interpreting the letter as testimony that the journal and the material published online belonged to her [3] [2] [8]. That change relates to the diary’s ownership and existence rather than independent forensic verification of every page previously circulated, and outlets reported the update prompted widespread conservative commentary [5] [8].
4. What the diary allegedly contains — and why caution matters
Some published excerpts attributed to the diary include deeply personal claims—references to addiction, recovery, and passages that readers and commentators have interpreted as describing early sexualized experiences, including assertions about showering with a parent—claims that have been heavily amplified by partisan commentators and outlets [9] [10] [11]. However, authoritative reporting distinguishes between (a) confirmation that a private journal existed and was stolen and (b) independent corroboration of specific allegations inside a private diary; while Ashley Biden’s letter supports that the journal was hers and was viewed online, the public record does not provide independent public forensic validation of every passage before it was circulated [3] [8].
5. The political and ethical fault lines
Prosecutors framed the theft as politically motivated and courts punished the thieves, while defenders of aggressive reporting argue that leaked personal documents can have public relevance; critics counter that publishing intimate, potentially traumatic personal writings weaponizes private pain for political ends and risks misinformation when context is lost [2] [5]. Project Veritas’s involvement and the subsequent publication by other conservative outlets made the diary a political football in 2020 and again in later coverage, demonstrating how stolen personal material can shift from a criminal matter into a contested public narrative [4] [5].
6. What the record shows and what remains unsettled
The public record establishes that Ashley Biden’s diary was stolen, sold to conservative actors, and that people involved pleaded guilty and were sentenced; Ashley Biden herself wrote that her private journal had been viewed online, which fact‑checkers treated as authentication of ownership [1] [4] [3]. What remains less settled in public reporting is the independent forensic authentication of every published page and the evidentiary support for specific serious allegations inside the diary beyond the text of the journal itself; responsible reporting and interpretation should therefore distinguish between confirmed chain of custody and contested factual claims within private material [3] [8].