A prominent fact-checking outlet revised its stance on whether Ashley Biden accused her father of inappropriate behavior from “unproven” to “true” following her authentication of the contents in a legal document.
Several weeks before the 2020 election, Biden’s diary was stolen and sold to Project Veritas for $40,000. In the diary, the president’s daughter recounted her experiences of feeling “hyper-sexualized” as a child, specifically referencing instances of showering with her father at a young age, which she considered “probably not appropriate,” as depicted in circulated photographs initially published by the National File.
On April 29, Snopes revised its rating from “unproven” to “true” after examining an April 8 letter from the president’s daughter to Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who sentenced Aimee Harris for conspiring to transport and sell the diary. Additionally, the outlet updated the headline of the fact-check on Tuesday to “Did Ashley Biden Call Childhood Showers with Her Father ‘Probably Inappropriate’ in Leaked Diary?” from “Did Ashley Biden Accuse Joe Biden of Inappropriate Behavior in a ‘Leaked Diary’?”
“The wording of both the headline and the claim of this fact check have been revised for more specificity,” the outlet said in an editor’s note.
This quote—in broken English, no less—is not in Ashley Biden's diary. Hoaxes like these have been floating around for months—they must stop. Her exact quote is attached.
We spent 2 months transcribing the diary: https://t.co/Boc2cWNyIx
The original: https://t.co/AWXD8X0aXV https://t.co/c7E8zvaT64 pic.twitter.com/cPaf2gcfZ3— Marco Polo (@MarcoPolo501c3) January 16, 2023
“I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online,” Biden wrote in the letter. “Repeatedly, I hear others grossly misinterpret my once-private writings and lob false accusations that defame my character and those of the people I love. Her actions were not only re-traumatizing to me, but constituted a horrific trauma in and of themselves. This ongoing harm is a direct result of Ms. Harris’ intentional actions.”
The fact check deemed this letter as direct proof of the diary’s authenticity, leading to the change.
In 2023, audio of a phone call between Biden and Project Veritas surfaced online, revealing that the diary indeed belonged to the president’s daughter. In the call, Biden requested the diary’s return and acknowledged its ownership.
