Federal judge rejects James O'Keefe's First Amendment claim on Ashley Biden diary story

A US District Court judge struck down Project Veritas' First Amendment claims in the case of Ashley Biden's abandoned diary, which prosecutors claim was stolen and had been obtained unethically.

Manhattan Judge Analisa Torres rejected the nonprofit organization's constitutional protection claims last week, saying in the ruling that they were "inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent." This decision grants criminal prosecutors the ability to see nearly one thousand documents pertaining to the alleged theft of President Biden's daughter's personal diary, AP reports.

In addition, Judge Torres ruled that Project Veritas could not claim source confidentiality protections from public disclosure because two individuals have already pleaded guilty in the case.

On Monday, Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman, who is representing Project Veritas announced that they are considering an appeal, the outlet reports. The news organization has maintained that the possession of the diary was obtained ethically and legally.

Attorneys for Project Veritas and journalist James O'Keefe of OMG Media argued in written statements that the federal investigation "seems undertaken not to vindicate any real interests of justice, but rather to stifle the press from investigating the President's family."

"It is impossible to imagine the government investigating an abandoned diary (or perhaps the other belongings left behind with it), had the diary not been written by someone with the last name 'Biden,'" they added.

In August 2022, Aimee Harris, 40, of Palm Beach, and Jonathan Kurlander, 58, of Jupiter, both pled guilty to a charge of conspiracy stemming from their selling of the journal. Project Veritas reportedly paid the pair $20,000 each for the diary.

"Harris and Kurlander stole personal property from an immediate family member of a candidate for national political office," Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement, according to Politico. "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. 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."

Prosecutors said, according to AP, that the diary contains "highly personal entries," tax documents, a digital storage card with private family photos, clothes, and luggage to New York.

It was later revealed in leaked passages from the alleged diary that Ashley Biden questioned if she had been molested because she was hypersexualized at a young age. She also allegedly wrote that she took showers with her father, President Joe Biden, and stated in the diary that it was "probably not appropriate," according to Townhall.

 

Project Veritas claimed that it paid for the rights to publish the diary but that it never published it because it couldn't authenticate it.

The FBI obtained search warrants for O'Keefe's home, along with two of his colleagues. No one has been charged, though O'Keefe has been vocal in his denouncing of the raids and has said that they are an attack on press freedom.

In November of last year, James O'Keefe released a video explaining what had happened, including details on how they came into contact with a copy of the Biden daughter's diary.

"Late last year, we were approached by tipsters claiming they had a copy of Ashley Biden's diary," said O'Keefe.

"We had never met or heard of the tipsters. The tipsters indicated the diary had been abandoned in a room in which Ms. Biden stayed at the time, and in which the tipsters stayed in temporarily, after Miss Biden departed the room," he continued. "The tipsters indicated that the diary included explosive allegations against then-candidate Joe Biden."

O'Keefe stated that the tipsters had also been in negotiations with another media outlet for a sum of money to obtain the diary.

"We investigated the claims provided to us as journalists do. We took steps to corroborate the authenticity of the diary. At the end of the day, we made the ethical decision that because in part we could not determine if the diary was real, if the diary in fact belonged to Ashley Biden, or if the contents of the diary occurred, we could not publish the diary in any part thereof," he said.

Lichtman, speaking on behalf of Project Veritas and the individuals whose homes were raided by the FBI, stated in an email: "As for the continued investigation, the government isn’t seeking any prison time for either defendant who claims to have stolen the Ashley Biden diary, which speaks volumes in our minds."

Project Veritas has not yet been charged with any crime and investigators will get to see the documents as early as Jan. 5.