1996 Court Doc Shows Reade Told Then-Husband about ‘Sexual Harassment’ in Biden’s Office
Newly discovered court documents show that in 1996, Tara Reade told her ex-husband that she was sexually harassed “in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”
Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen filed the declaration, which was obtained by the San Louis Obispo Tribune, while contesting a restraining order that Reade had filed against him after he filed for divorce. Dronen explains that Reade told him “on several occasions” about “a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”
“It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today,” Dronen explains, saying that the alleged incident and others described in the document “color [Reade’s] perception and judgment” with respect to the restraining order.
Reade’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said the document “is further support that Ms. Reade was sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by then Senator Joe Biden,” although Dronen does not mention that Reade told him it was Biden that had sexually harassed her.
Reade’s former neighbor has come forward to state on the record that Reade told her Biden had assaulted her in 1995, two years after the alleged assault occurred. Reade has also identified a woman, who called into a 1993 clip from CNN’s Larry King Live to discuss “problems” her daughter had had with a U.S. senator, as her mother.
Dronen also said that Reade had said she “eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position.” Joe Biden’s campaign responded to the new revelation by providing a comment from Ted Kaufman, Biden’s chief of staff in 1993, who denied that Reade ever approached him.
“I have consistently said what is the truth here — that she never came to me,” Kaufman said. “I do not remember her, and had she come to me in any of these circumstances, I would remember her. But I do not, because she did not.”
Reade, appearing in an exclusive interview with Megyn Kelly, called for Biden to drop out of the 2020 race. “I want to say, you were there, Joe Biden. Please, step forward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade stated.
