Biden accuser spoke to neighbor of alleged assault

WASHINGTON — An associate of a former Senate aide to Joe Biden says the woman told her about her allegations of sexual assault against Biden — now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — in the 1990s.

The account, which was published Monday in Business Insider, comes a little over a month after Tara Reade first accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building when she worked in his office in the spring of 1993. Biden’s campaign has denied the allegations.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Reade said she had told at least four people about the incident, including her deceased mother and her brother, who has spoken publicly about the matter. The AP spoke with two individuals on the condition of anonymity; one said Reade told them about the alleged assault when it happened, while the other said Reade told them in 2007 or 2008 about experiencing sexual harassment from Biden while working in his Senate office.

Now Lynda LaCasse, who was Reade’s neighbor in the 1990s, says Reade told her about the alleged assault around the time it happened. LaCasse said that when they were neighbors in 1995 or 1996, Reade told her “about the senator that she had worked for and he put his hand up her skirt.”

“She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do,” LaCasse told Business Insider.

A second woman, Lorraine Sanchez, worked with Reade for California state Sen. Jack O’Connell from 1994 to 1996. Sanchez told Business Insider that Reade said “she had been sexually harassed by her former boss while she was in DC” and was fired for voicing her concerns.

The AP was unable to reach Sanchez or LaCasse.

The Biden campaign declined to comment on the new interviews, pointing to an earlier statement from deputy campaign manager and communications director Kate Bedingfield. The statement said that while sexual assault claims should be “diligently reviewed by an independent press,” what Reade alleged “absolutely did not happen.”

Reade said in past interviews that Biden pushed her against a wall in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building, groped her and penetrated her with his fingers. She said after telling her supervisors in Biden’s office that she had been sexually harassed by the then-senator, her concerns weren’t taken seriously and she was eventually told to find another job.

Two of those staffers have said in interviews that they didn’t recall Reade or any such incident. The third issued an on-the-record statement denying Reade’s claim.

Late last week, The Intercept unearthed a 1993 video clip that shows a woman Reade says was her mother calling into CNN’s Larry King Live. In the clip, an unnamed woman from San Luis Obispo, Calif., tells King that her daughter just left Washington, “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.”

Last spring, eight women, including Reade, came forward with allegations that Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection. Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”

The AP spoke with Reade about those complaints in April 2019. During that interview, Reade alleged that Biden rubbed her shoulders and neck and played with her hair, and that she was asked by another aide in Biden’s Senate office to dress more conservatively and told “don’t be so sexy.” The AP declined to publish details of the interview at the time because reporters were unable to corroborate her allegations, and aspects of her story contradicted other reporting.