![]() Project Veritas later said in court filings that it had obtained items belonging to Ashley Biden that its "sources" described as "abandoned." Project Veritas also sent Spencer Meads, one of O'Keefe's top lieutenants, to do more digging in the state. The two sides failed to reach an agreement and Harris and Kurlander went back to Florida. Harris and Kurlander flew to New York to meet with members of the group and began negotiating a $40,000 deal to sell the diary. Project Veritas then sought to acquire the diary after learning about it in September, according to the Times. ![]() Paoletta called the lawmakers back later, however, to say he was "unsure whether the account about Donald Trump Jr.'s reaction was accurate." had "showed no interest" and said it should be reported to the FBI, according to the report. Mark Paoletta, a former lawyer for ex-Vice President Mike Pence who was hired by Project Veritas to lobby congressional Republicans to push back against an FBI probe into the group, initially told the lawmakers that Trump Jr. or anyone affiliated with Trump's campaign saw the diary. Harris and Kurlander attended the fundraiser at Fago's home three days later where they showed it to others and sought to find out whether Trump's campaign "might be interested in it," according to the Times. and was later nominated by President Trump to the National Cancer Advisory Board. Kurlander then contacted Trump donor Elizabeth Fago, who hosted the fundraiser that was attended by Donald Trump Jr. In August, Harris, who supported Trump, reached out to another friend, Robert Kurlander, a Biden critic who served 40 months in prison for fraud in the 1990s, and hatched a plan to sell the diary to help pay for lawyers in her custody battle, according to the Times. Ashley Biden had left several bags of her belongings, including the diary, at the house after moving back to the Philadelphia area, saying she planned to retrieve them later. She learned Ashley Biden, a friend of the ex-boyfriend, had stayed there during the pandemic, according to the report. In July 2020, a woman named Aimee Harris moved into the home of an ex-boyfriend in Delray Beach, Florida, amid a custody dispute. RELATED: FBI raids homes of Project Veritas associates as part of probe into theft of Ashley Biden's diary That apparent effort could complicate the group's claims that its activities were protected under the First Amendment. A caller from Project Veritas' headquarters in New York later tried to "trick" Ashley Biden into confirming its authenticity, using a fake identity in a phone call offering to return it, according to the Times. Shortly after that, Project Veritas obtained the diary and asked the couple who had originally acquired it to retrieve more items from the home where Ashley Biden had stayed to verify that it was hers, according to the report. (When she moved away, Ashley Biden reportedly agreed to store some personal belongings with the owner.) The diary was later shown around a Trump fundraiser in Florida at the home of a donor who was later nominated by then-President Donald Trump to a federal position. ![]() The diary was found at a Florida home where Ashley Biden, who was recovering from addiction, had previously stayed, according to the Times report. In response to Project Veritas' argument, prosecutors accused the group of making statements that are "false or misleading and are directly contradicted by the evidence." The Times report suggests the group may have tried to "trick" Ashley Biden while trying to authenticate the diary. The group, which regularly conducts undercover stings intended to embarrass liberal groups and journalists, has insisted in court filings that it is protected under the First Amendment as a news publisher. Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, a Trump ally, claimed that he learned of the diary from "tipsters" and said the group made an "ethical" decision not to publish it because they could not authenticate it. Project Veritas denied that it had illegally obtained the diary and said it had "no involvement" with the two individuals that acquired it. The FBI in November raided the homes of several current and former Project Veritas members while investigating the theft of Ashley Biden's diary, the contents of which were published on a different right-wing website shortly before of the 2020 election. ![]() before it was obtained by the conservative group Project Veritas, according to The New York Times. A Florida woman tried to shop around the diary of Ashley Biden, President Biden's daughter, during a 2020 Trump campaign fundraiser attended by Donald Trump Jr.
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