When Donald Trump was running for office several eons ago, he famously claimed that he would surround himself with only “the best people” as president. That pledge, 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 audit, turned out to be one of the biggest lies of the 21st century. Instead, Trump near-exclusively surrounded himself with complete and total sleazebags. From Mike Flynn and Stephen Miller to Betsy DeVos and Rudy Giuliani, it was as though the 45th POTUS made would-be candidates for his inner and outer circle undergo a screening process to ensure they were horrible people. So it’s not entirely surprising—though revolting nevertheless!—to learn that a donor Trump would later nominate to a government advisory board apparently hosted a gathering at which a stolen diary belonging to Ashley Biden, which she kept during her addiction recovery, was passed around.

The New York Times reports that during the summer of 2020, as Trump’s chances for reelection were rapidly slipping away, a woman named Aimee Harris moved into a Delray Beach rental home of a former boyfriend, where Joe Biden’s daughter had stayed earlier in the pandemic. That August, Harris contacted a friend named Robert Kurlander, who was sentenced to 40 months in prison in the ’90s after pleading guilty to a conspiracy count in a drug-related money laundering scheme, and had “expressed anti-Biden sentiments online,” to let him know she possessed Ashley’s diary, which the soon-to-be first daughter had left at the rental house, along with some other items, with the intention to retrieve them in the fall. Believing they had something extremely valuable on their hands, Kurlander reportedly then contacted Elizabeth Fago, a Trump donor who, as the Times previously reported, “visited the Trump White House at least twice,” and whose son helped Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle buy their $9.7 million Florida home. Fago apparently thought the diary’s contents would make Joe Biden look bad and help Trump’s election prospects. On September 6, Harris and Kurlander attended a fundraiser at Fago’s house in Jupiter, Florida, where the deeply personal diary was “passed around” for attendees’ leering delight. (Donald Trump Jr. was at the event, though it’s unclear who saw the diary, according to the Times.) Roughly a week after the party, several people representing Project Veritas, the group known for undercover sting operations against liberal groups, met with Harris and Kurlander in New York. While Project Veritas wanted the diary, the organization was also apparently concerned about being duped and wanted to ensure it was actually Ashley Biden’s.

Which led to this wildly unethical call that the group insists is a standard journalistic practice:

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

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, N.Y., surrounded by other top members of the group, the caller was seeking to trick Ms. Biden into confirming the authenticity of the diary, which Project Veritas was about to purchase from two intermediaries for $40,000. The caller did not identify himself as being affiliated with Project Veritas, according to accounts from two people with knowledge of the conversation. By the end of the call, several of the group’s operatives who had either listened in, heard recordings of the call, or been told of it believed that Ms. Biden had said more than enough to confirm that it was hers.



Source link