The strange case of Ashley Biden’s diary just got even stranger. Keep in mind that what it reveals is not just Creepy Joe, but possibly Sexually Abusive Joe. The diary came to light in November 2021 when the FBI raided the home of Project Veritas (PV) founder James O'Keefe, but the investigation likely began a year earlier. Last week, Aimee Harris of Palm Beach and Robert Kurlander of Jupiter pleaded guilty to stealing the diary and selling it to PV, which former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy says is because the FBI is angling for bigger fish.

The ramifications of the Justice Department’s pursuing a journalistic enterprise on such theories of criminal liability should have set off alarm bells throughout the press. But in its sting operations, right-leaning Project Veritas frequently targets the left-leaning media. These days partisan tribalism is a higher value than institutional solidarity. The press is thus quite content to see PV in the DOJ’s wringer. Though the basis for investigating PV seemed narrow, the FBI took advantage of it to do a wholesale rummaging through PV’s records, juicy portions of which were then leaked to the New York Times — which, when not publishing tax information purloined from Donald Trump and classified information lawlessly leaked by government officials, is a staunch critic of PV’s methods and is currently defending against an acrimonious defamation lawsuit filed by O'Keefe’s outfit.

In short, Kurlander and Harris took advantage of Ashley Biden’s troubled past.

After a 2019 rehab stint in Florida, she moved into a friend’s home in Delray Beach.

She relocated on June 17, 2020, apparently intending to return in the fall, so the friend allowed her to store her property in the home. Days later, the friend allowed Harris, an old acquaintance, to move in temporarily with her two children. The Times reports that Harris was in a bitter custody dispute and dire financial straits. While residing in the Delray Beach home, Harris learned that Biden fille had stayed there and found her property, seizing in particular on the diary.

McCarthy recounts a lot of other specific details about dates and contacts with Project Veritas, though after the duo had unsuccessfully tried to sell Biden’s diary to Donald Trump’s campaign. The two were paid $10,000 for the diary and another $30,000 for other pilfered Biden possessions.

Again, O'Keefe stresses that PV opted not to publish the diary. Though he insisted that PV made sure that law-enforcement officials got the diary (which was certainly big of PV after apparently paying over $40,000 for it), excerpts of the diary were published by a website called National File on October 24 — coincidentally, the same day as the final PV payment to Harris and Kurlander. National File claimed to have gotten the diary from a disgruntled PV whistleblower.

O'Keefe has said that PV tried to return the diary to a lawyer for Ashley Biden but that the attorney would not authenticate it as Biden’s property. At that point, O'Keefe says, PV gave the diary to a law-enforcement agency. He didn’t say which one, but the Times report cited above recounts that in early November 2020, after Election Day, PV arranged to have Ashley Biden’s property taken to the Delray Beach Police Department. A lawyer apparently involved in that delivery is said to have been “captured on video saying the belongings might have been stolen.” The feds got involved when the Delray police contacted the FBI.

What does it all mean? That the diary is authentic, number one, and that Joe Biden ought to be answering a lot of questions about what he did with and to his clearly messed up daughter Ashley. But it also means Project Veritas is not out of the woods.

The Justice Department does not agree to give guilty pleas with cooperation arrangements to clearly culpable offenders, such as Harris and Kurlander, unless prosecutors believe there are more attractive targets worth making a case against. O'Keefe and Project Veritas have made themselves some powerful enemies over the years. The problem with living dangerously is … you make yourself an attractive target.

National Review subscribers can read the whole thing here.