A local California newspaper reported on Thursday that court documents from 1996 show that Tara Reade, who had previously served as a staffer for then-Senator Joe Biden, told her ex-husband that in 1993 she was sexually harassed while working for Biden.
The Tribune reported that Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen made the following declaration in court while he was fighting against a restraining order that Reade filed against him after he filed for divorce:
I met Petitioner in the spring of 1993 while working in Washington, D.C. At the early stages of our dating, Petitioner felt comfortable confiding in me as we both worked for Members of Congress, and we shared many other common interests. On several occasions Petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office. Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position. I was sympathetic to her needs when she asked me for help, and assisted her financially, and allowed her to stay at my apartment with my roommate while she looked for work. It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on Petitioner, and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today.
The Tribune noted that it is important to point out that the statement from Reade’s then-husband does not state who the person was that was allegedly harassing Reade, just that it happened “in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”
Then-Biden chief of staff Ted Kaufman disputed Reade’s claims, telling The Tribune, “I have consistently said what is the truth here — that she never came to me. 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’s sexual assault allegation against Biden, which she made in March of this year, gained traction late last month when NewsBusters unearthed a 1993 video clip of Reade’s mother calling into CNN’s “Larry King Live” and saying that her daughter was having problems with a “prominent senator.”
LARRY KING: San Luis Obispo, California, hello.
CALLER: Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.
KING: In other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?
CALLER: That’s true.
Since then, more people have come forward and said that Reade told them about the alleged incident.
During a podcast in March, Reade said, “It happened all at once…his hands were on me and underneath my clothes. Yeah, and he went down my skirt but then up inside it, and he penetrated me with his fingers, and he was kissing me at the same time, and he was saying something to me. He said several things. I can’t remember everything he said.”
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