The woman who accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault is willing to testify under oath about her claims.
Tara Reade, 56, who was a Senate staffer for Biden in 1993, accused the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee of inappropriately touching her and also alleged that he assaulted her by penetrating her with his fingers while forcibly kissing her. The former vice president’s campaign has denied the allegations, but Biden himself has not mentioned them.
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“I will cooperate with law enforcement of any investigation going forward or in the future, and go under oath if I need to about what happened,” Reade told the Washington Examiner.
Reade claims that she told her mother, brother, and an anonymous friend about the incidents. The friend told reporters that Reade had told her about the sexual assault shortly after it happened, but noted that Reade spoke with superiors about harassment, not the assault. The friend also remembered Reade filing a written complaint with a Senate office at the time, but the existence of that document is unknown.
Reade’s brother, Collin Moulton, recalled his sister telling him that Biden inappropriately touched her neck and shoulders, and days later added that he put his hand under her clothes.
Additionally, earlier this week, Reade’s former neighbor and a former colleague revealed that Reade told them in the 1990s that she was assaulted or harassed, potentially corroborating her story. Last week, Reade identified her now-deceased mother’s voice in uncovered 1993 Larry King Live show footage, in which a female caller told King about her daughter’s difficulty voicing “problems” with a “prominent senator.”
The Biden campaign has maintained that Reade’s allegations are false, but they are facing calls for the senator to allow the University of Delaware to release Biden’s senate archives, which could contain the complaint Reade says she filed.
