Of course, Ashley Biden’s diary was “circulated” as a Trump fundraiser, aka A Gathering of Horrible People

When Donald Trump ran for office several eons ago, he famously claimed that as president he would surround himself only with “the best people.” That promise, of course, like the one to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, and the one in which he swore he couldn’t release his tax returns while under control, turned out to be one of the biggest lies of the 21st century. Instead, Trump almost exclusively surrounded himself with complete and total sleazebags. From Mike Flynn and Stephen Miller nasty Betsy DeVos and Rudy Giuliani, it was as if the 45th POTUS put candidates through a screening process for its inner and outer circle to to ensure they were terrible people. So it’s not entirely surprising – though repulsive nonetheless! — to learn that a donor Trump would later nominate to a government advisory board apparently organized a meeting where a stolen diary of Ashley Biden, that she kept during her recovery from her addiction was passed on.

The New York Times reports that in the summer of 2020, as Trump’s re-election chances slipped quickly, a woman named Aimee Harris moved into an ex-boyfriend’s rental home in Delray Beach, where Joe Biden‘s daughter had stayed in the pandemic before. In August, Harris contacted a friend named Robert Kurlander, who was sentenced to 40 months in prison in the 1990s after pleading guilty to a drug-related money laundering conspiracy, and “expressing anti-Biden sentiments online” to let him know she owned Ashley’s diary, which the forthcoming first daughter had left the rented house along with some other items with the intention of picking them up in the fall. Believing they had something extremely valuable on their hands, Kurlander reportedly then contacted Elizabeth Fago, a Trump donor who, if the Time previously reported, “visited the Trump White House at least twice,” and whose son helped Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle their $9.7 million Florida home. Fago apparently thought the contents of the diary would make Joe Biden look bad and help Trump’s election prospects. On September 6, Harris and Kurlander attended a fundraiser at Fago’s home in Jupiter, Florida, where the highly personal diary was “circulated” to the delight of those in attendance. (Donald Trump Jr. was at the event, although it’s unclear who saw the diary, according to the paper) Time.About a week after the party, several people representing Project Veritas, the group known for undercover operations against liberal groups, met Harris and Kurlander in New York. While Project Veritas wanted the diary, the organization was also apparently concerned about being duped and wanted to make sure it really belonged to Ashley Biden.

Which led to this hugely unethical call that the group believes is standard journalistic practice:

A month before the 2020 election, Ashley, the daughter of Joseph R. Biden Jr., received a call from a man offering help. In a friendly tone, the man said that he had found a diary that he believed to be Mrs. Biden’s and that he wanted to return it to her… She agreed with the caller to send someone to pick up the diary the next day to fetch.

The man on the other end of the phone worked for Project Veritas… From a conference room at the group’s headquarters in Westchester County, NY, surrounded by other top members of the group, the caller tried to trick Ms Biden into confirming the authenticity of the journal, which Project Veritas was about to purchase from two intermediaries for $40,000. The caller did not identify as affiliated with Project Veritas, according to accounts from two people with knowledge of the call. Towards the end of the call, several members of the group who had either listened in, heard recordings of the call, or were told that Ms. Biden had said more than enough to confirm it was hers.