Judge Strikes Down Project Veritas First Amendment Claim in Biden Daughter Diary Case

A district judge in Manhattan last week ruled that criminal prosecutors may soon get to examine 900 pages of documents related to the alleged theft of Ashley Biden's diary, rejecting a First Amendment claim from Project Veritas.

The judge ruled that the arguments based on the First Amendment are “inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent,” noting that Project Veritas could not claim they were protecting the identity of an anonymous source because two individuals already pleaded guilty in the case, according to the Associated Press. 

Attorneys for the nonprofit conservative group, which self-identifies as a news organization, are considering appealing the ruling from U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres.

Torres wrote that the documents, which were seized in authorized raids from November 2021 of three members of Project Veritas' homes, can be given to investigators by Jan. 5, according to the Associated Press.

Electronic devices were also acquired in the raid and two cell phones were found at the home of James O'Keefe, the group's founder who has since been fired.

Lawyers for Project Veritas and O’Keefe wrote in their arguments that it “seems undertaken not to vindicate any real interests of justice, but rather to stifle the press from investigating the President’s family,” according to the Associated Press

They added: “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.'"

In August of 2022, Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, referring to Ashley Biden's diary and other items she reportedly stored at a friends house in Delray Beach, Florida.

Project Veritas has not been charged with a crime and the group claims their methods for news gathering were ethical and legal.