Biden accused of sex crime
Ex-Senate aide alleges assault occurred in ’93
WASHINGTON — A former Senate aide who last year accused Joe Biden of inappropriate touching has made an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee this fall.
Tara Reade, who briefly worked as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office, told The New York Times that in 1993, Biden pinned her to a wall in a Senate building, reached under her clothing and penetrated her with his fingers. A friend said Reade told her the details of the allegation at the time. Another friend and a brother of Reade’s said she told them over the years about a traumatic sexual incident involving Biden.
A spokeswoman for Biden said the allegation was false. In interviews, several people who worked in the Senate office with Reade said they did not recall any talk of such an incident or similar behavior by Biden toward her or any women. Two office interns who worked directly with Reade said they were unaware of the allegation or any treatment that troubled her.
Last year, Reade and seven other women came forward to accuse Biden of kissing, hugging or touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. Reade told The Times then that Biden had publicly stroked her neck, wrapped his fingers in her hair and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable.
Soon after Reade made the new allegation, in a podcast interview released March 25, The Times began reporting on her account and seeking corroboration through interviews, documents and other sources. The Times interviewed Reade on multiple days over hours, as well as those she told about Biden’s behavior and other friends. The Times has also interviewed lawyers who spoke to Reade about her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Reade; and the other seven women who criticized Biden last year, to discuss their experiences with him.
No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden.
On Thursday, Reade filed a report with the Washington, D.C., police, saying she was the victim of a sexual assault in 1993; the public incident report, provided to The Times by Reade and the police, does not mention Biden by name, but she said the complaint was about him. Reade said she filed the report to give herself an additional degree of safety from potential threats. Filing a false police report may be punishable by a fine and imprisonment.
Reade, who worked as a staff assistant helping manage office interns, said she also filed a complaint with the Senate in 1993 about Biden; she said she did not have a copy of it, and such paperwork has not been located. The Biden campaign said it did not have a complaint.
The Times reviewed an official copy of her employment history from the Senate that she provided showing she was hired in December 1992 and paid by Biden’s office until August 1993.
The seven other women who had complained about Biden told The Times this month that they did not have any new information about their experiences to add, but several said they believed Reade’s account.
Last year, Biden, 77, acknowledged the women’s complaints about his conduct, saying his intentions were benign and promising to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.”
In response to Reade’s allegation, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy Biden campaign manager, said in a statement, “Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act.
“He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”
Reade made her new allegation public as Biden was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination after winning a string of primaries against his chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Reade, who describes herself as a “third-generation Democrat,” said she originally favored Marianne Williamson and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in the race but voted for Sanders in the California primary last month. She said her decision to come forward had nothing to do with politics or helping Sanders and added that neither his campaign nor the Trump campaign had encouraged her to make her allegation.
President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by more than a dozen women, who have described a pattern of behavior that went far beyond the accusations against Biden. The president also directed illegal payments — including $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels — before the 2016 election to silence women about alleged affairs with Trump, according to federal prosecutors.
Reade, 56, told The Times that the assault happened in the spring of 1993.
She said she had tracked down Biden to deliver an athletic bag when he pushed her against a cold wall, started kissing her neck and hair and propositioned her. He slid his hand up her cream-colored blouse, she said, and used his knee to part her bare legs before reaching under her skirt.
“It happened at once. He’s talking to me, and his hands are everywhere, and everything is happening very quickly,” she recalled. “He was kissing me, and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ ”
Reade said she pulled away and Biden stopped.
“He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked,” she said. “He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’ ”
At the time, Reade said she worried whether she had done something wrong to encourage his advances.
“He pointed his finger at me, and he just goes, ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing,’ ” she said. “Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK. You’re fine.’ ”
Biden walked down the hallway, Reade said, and she cleaned up in a restroom, made her way home and, sobbing, called her mother, who encouraged her to immediately file a police report.
Instead, Reade said, she complained to Marianne Baker, Biden’s executive assistant, as well as to two top aides, Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman, about harassment by Biden — not mentioning the alleged assault.
The staff declined to take action, Reade said, after which she filed a written complaint with a Senate personnel office. She said office staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless office; and made the work environment uncomfortable for her.
She said Kaufman later told her she was not a good fit in the office, giving her a month to look for a job. Reade never secured another position in Washington.
In an interview, Kaufman, a longtime friend of Biden’s who was his chief of staff at the time, said, “I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her.”
Toner, who worked for Biden for more than three decades, said the allegation was out of character for Biden. Other senators and office staffs had reputations for harassing women at work and partying after hours, according to those who worked in the office at the time. Biden was known for racing to catch the train to get home to Wilmington, Delaware, every night.
The Biden campaign issued a statement from Baker, Biden’s executive assistant from 1982 to 2000.
“I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone,” she said. “I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional and as a manager.”
Reade said that she could not remember the exact time, date or location of the assault but that it occurred in a “semiprivate” place in the Senate office complex.
At the time of the alleged assault, Reade said she was responsible for coordinating interns in the office. Two former interns who worked with her said they never heard her describe any inappropriate conduct by Biden or saw her directly interact with him in any capacity but recalled that she abruptly stopped supervising them in April, before the end of their internship. Others who worked in the office at the time said they remembered Reade but not any inappropriate behavior.