Ashley Biden detailed 'pain' from diary theft, urged prison for thief in letter to judge

• Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden, asked a judge to sentence the woman who stole her diary to prison, an unsealed letter shows.
• U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain unsealed the highly emotional letter more than three weeks after sentencing Aimee Harris.
• The judge sentenced Harris to one month in federal jail and three months of home detention.

Ashley Biden, the daughter of President Joe Biden, wrote a judge to say she would not attend the criminal sentencing earlier this month of the woman who stole her diary because "it would only increase my pain."

The highly emotional letter was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain more than three weeks after the judge sentenced Aimee Harris to one month in federal jail and three months of home detention.

"My goal in asking Your Honor to impose a term of incarceration is to ensure that another woman isn't bullied and shamed like this ever again," Ashley Biden wrote. "The despair I have often felt will never truly go away. But I ask Your Honor to hold Ms. Harris accountable so that she thinks twice before doing it to someone else."

She also asked Swain to sentence the Florida resident to prison followed by a lengthy probation period, according to the letter unsealed Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

The letter was unsealed at the request of The New York Times, whose lawyer David McCaw noted to Swain that Ashley Biden and prosecutors did not object to it being made public, while Harris took no position on the request.

Harris, 41, also was ordered to serve three years of probation and to forfeit the $20,000 she received for selling the stolen diary.

Harris pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiring two years earlier with Robert Kurlander, 61, to steal