JAMES O'KEEFE GETS STUNG
New York magazine|January 16-29, 2023
After a decade of punking liberals with hidden-camera stings, his pursuit of Ashley Biden's stolen diary could blow up in his face.
ANDREW RICE
JAMES O'KEEFE GETS STUNG

IT ALL BEGAN with a Florida man and his boat. Back in 2020, a Peruvian-born millionaire who resided in a marina development in Jupiter started fighting with neighbors who objected to a Trump flag he flew on the mast of his 40-foot Invincible. The local feud escalated into a series of nationally publicized pro-Trump boat parades. One of these Trumptillas, as the organizers called them, went from Jupiter to Mar-a-Lago on Labor Day. The night before the event, a Republican donor named Elizabeth Fago threw a campaign fundraiser at her dockside mansion. Kimberly Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. were at the party, and so were a pair of local entrepreneurs, Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander, who came bearing items for sale.

“You may have a chance to make so much money,” Kurlander, a businessman who had done time in federal prison for conspiring to launder drug money, texted Harris beforehand.

“OMG,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to show you what Mama has to bring Papa.”

Among the materials Harris had found—or, as she would later admit, stolen—was a small green notebook: a diary that belonged to Ashley Biden, the then-39-year-old daughter of Joe. Kurlander had introduced Harris to Fago, a nursing-home mogul who drove a white Bentley and was once in a cheerleading crew called the Nixonettes.

This story is from the January 16-29, 2023 edition of New York magazine.

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This story is from the January 16-29, 2023 edition of New York magazine.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

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