The woman who stole Ashley Biden's diary, Aimee Harris, apologized in tears as a New York judge sentenced her to a month in prison Tuesday.
"I do not believe I am above the law," Harris told the court.
Harris, of Palm Beach, Florida, had pled guilty to selling the diary for $20,000 to the news organization Project Veritas.
The outlet never published the diary, but the organization's founder, James O'Keefe, was raided by the FBI in a shocking show of force that was widely criticized.
The diary was published by the website National File, and the shocking contents included references to "showers with dad" and being "sexualized at a young age."
The DOJ said the diary included "highly personal entries," tax records and other sensitive information.
Harris stole the diary in 2020 from a Florida home she was staying in where Biden had previously resided. Harris pled guilty to the theft in 2022 along with a co-conspirator, Robert Kurlander.
The pair initially tried selling the diary to the Trump campaign, which declined.
At the sentencing Tuesday, the judge and the prosecutor both chided Harris for trying to profit off of stolen property and use it to damage Biden's father, Joe Biden, in the political arena.
Harris stole "everything she could get her hands on," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman said.
“She wanted to damage Ms. Biden’s father," he added.
Prosecutors asked for four months to a year in prison, citing a "pattern of disrespect for the law and the justice system" after Harris missed several sentencing dates. Harris said she was busy caring for her two kids.
“I’m a survivor of long term domestic abuse and sexual trauma,” she told the judge.
Her lawyer Anthony Cecutti said she “carries the shame and stigma of her actions,” actions which Judge Laura Taylor Swain called "despicable" and "very serious."
In a rare statement to the court, Ashley Biden called the theft a "heinous form of bullying."
Once her prison sentence is finished, Harris must undergo three years of supervised release.
While Harris' sentence has been widely publicized, there has been little effort in the mainstream media to verify the diary.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said Harris' attempt to exploit stolen property "for political gain, was wrong and illegal no matter the political agenda."
