A federal judge rejected Project Veritas’s First Amendment argument in a case that involves Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary.
DANGEROUS PRECEDENT, (AP) : Federal Judge rejects 1st amend. argument in Ashley Biden diary case
‘O’Keefe, Veritas couldn’t claim it was protecting identity of confidential source from disclosure after two individuals publicly pleaded guilty’
DEVELOPINGhttps://t.co/YeYxzG4L6Q
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) December 26, 2023
Last year the two individuals who found Ashley Biden’s diary at a halfway house pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.
The guilty plea of Florida pair Robert Kurlander, 59, and Aimee Harris, 41, were used to turn the screws on James O’Keefe.
Harris found Ashley Biden’s diary at a halfway house in Palm Beach in 2020 and sold it to Project Veritas for $40,000.
Ashely Biden, Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, left her diary under a mattress at the Palm Beach rehab home.
In a January 2019 entry, Ashley Biden recalled how she used to shower with her father, Joe Biden, and suggested it may have contributed to a sex addiction.
The diary describes Ashley and her father Joe Biden taking showers together at an inappropriate age.
“I have always been boy crazy,’ Ashley wrote. ‘Hyper-sexualized @ a young age … I remember somewhat being sexualized with [a family member]; I remember having sex with friends @ a young age; showers w/ my dad (probably not appropriate).’ she wrote in a January 2019 entry.
US District Judge Analisa Torres, an Obama appointee, said Project Veritas’s First Amendment claims were “inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.”
The judge also said of Project Veritas 1A claim: ‘O’Keefe, Veritas couldn’t claim it was protecting identity of confidential source from disclosure after two individuals publicly pleaded guilty.’
The judge was referring to the two individuals who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property after the FBI turned the screws on them.
This is a very dangerous precedent.
Excerpt from AP:
Criminal prosecutors may soon get to see over 900 documents pertaining to the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter after a judge rejected the conservative group Project Veritas’ First Amendment claim.
Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said on behalf of the nonprofit Monday that attorneys are considering appealing last Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan. In the written decision, the judge said the documents can be given to investigators by Jan. 5.
In written arguments, lawyers for Project Veritas and O’Keefe said the government’s 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.