A judge on Tuesday sentenced Aimee Harris to one month in prison and three months of home detention for stealing Ashley Biden’s diary and other items and selling them to a right-leaning group ahead of the 2020 election.
Judge Laura Swain denounced Harris’s conduct as serious during a hearing in New York and criticized her for delaying her sentencing hearing a dozen times. The judge said, though, that the Department of Justice’s request that Harris receive four to 10 months in prison was unnecessary, according to Inner City Press.
Harris had asked only for probation, and her defense attorney said in court that the defendant had been punished enough by negative press attention and had been working to overcome a slate of legal woes, not just from the diary theft but from child custody matters and a DUI charge, according to Inner City Press.
Harris repeatedly sought eleventh-hour delays to her sentencing hearing, which was originally scheduled for December 2022. She provided reasons on a last-minute basis to the court, such as sudden sickness, child care problems, and a lack of documentation for travel.
Harris’s sentencing comes after she pleaded guilty in August 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.
Harris had been temporarily residing at a home in Delray Beach, Florida, in 2020 when she came upon Ashley Biden’s handwritten diary, tax information, a digital camera, family photos, a phone, and other belongings, according to court documents.
