Tara Reade now has legal representation through Wigdor LLP as she pushes forward with allegations that Joe Biden sexually harassed and assaulted her when she worked in his Senate office in 1993.
Douglas Wigdor, the firm’s partner, has a long history of representing accusers in high-profile sexual misconduct cases. He represents six women who accused movie producer Harvey Weinstein, now a convicted sex offender, of misconduct. He represented Juliet Huddy in connection with her claims against former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. Wigdor was a vocal supporter of Christine Blasey Ford in cable news interviews but did not legally represent her during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, during which time she accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.
“Her harrowing account is credible and supported by numerous ‘outcry’ witnesses from decades ago,” a press release from the firm on Thursday said of Reade’s claims. “We at Wigdor LLP firmly believe that every survivor of sexual assault has the right to competent legal counsel, and we will represent Ms. Reade zealously, just as we would any other victim of sexual violence.”
Wigdor supported President Trump in the 2016 election but has also supported Democrats such as New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
The firm said that its representation of Reade “has absolutely nothing to do with politics.”
“We have decided to take this matter on because every survivor has the right to competent counsel, and that is exactly what we will provide,” the firm said.
The announcement of Reade’s legal representation followed news that former Fox News host Megyn Kelly interviewed Reade in her first on-camera appearance since Biden personally denied her allegations on Friday.
Reade, 56, alleges that in 1993, Biden sexually harassed her by inappropriately touching her hair and neck and sexually assaulted her by forcibly kissing her and penetrating her with his fingers in a semiprivate area of the Senate office building complex. She revealed harassment allegations in spring 2019 but did not accuse Biden of assault until the end of March.
Reade says that she complained about the harassment, but not the assault, to top staff members and then was retaliated against and told to find a job. Three top staffers vehemently deny hearing about her allegations, but two former interns have said they remember Reade abruptly losing her intern supervision duties. Several friends of Reade’s have said that they remember hearing about either the harassment or the alleged assault, with varying degrees of detail, around the time it happened or in the ’90s.
