A court document shows that Tara Reade told her ex-husband about sexual harassment she experienced in Joe Biden’s Senate office in 1993.
The 1996 San Luis Obispo County court filing, first reported by local California paper the Tribune, does not mention an assault that Reade now alleges against Biden and does not say that Biden is the person who sexually harassed Reade. But it is the first written piece of evidence that Reade complained about sexual harassment in Biden’s office in the 1990s, boosting corroboration from friends who say that they remember Reade complaining about assault or harassment around that time.
Biden and his campaign have denied Reade’s allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault but did not comment to the Tribune about the court document.
Theodore Dronen, Reade’s then-husband, wrote the court declaration while contesting a restraining order that Reade filed after he filed for divorce.
The filing, dated March 25, 1996, reads:
Reade’s ex-husband confirmed that he made the filing but declined to comment further.
“Tara and I ended our relationship over two decades ago under difficult circumstances,” Dronen told the Tribune Thursday. “I am not interested in reliving that chapter of my life. I wish Tara well, and I have nothing further to say.”
Reade alleges that 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. She also said staff members once asked her to serve drinks at an event because they said Biden liked her legs. Reade says that she complained about the harassment, but not the assault, to top staff members, who deny hearing any complaint from her.
Several friends and Reade’s brother have told news outlets in recent weeks that Reade told them about sexual harassment or assault in Biden’s office, with varying degrees of detail.
Reade’s former neighbor, Lynda LaCasse, said that she heard about the assault from Reade in 1995 or 1996. Lorraine Sanchez, a former colleague of Reade’s in a California state senator’s office from 1994 through 1996, said that Reade complained of being sexually harassed by her former boss. One unnamed friend told multiple outlets that Reade relayed the sexual assault incident soon after it happened, and another unnamed friend told news outlets that around 2007 or 2008, Reade told her about Biden inappropriately touching her. Reade’s brother has told news outlets that Reade told him in 1993 that Biden put his hands under her clothes.
A video that surfaced after Reade came forward with her assault shows a woman who Reade says is her now-deceased mother calling into an August 1993 episode of a Larry King show to ask about her daughter who worked for a “prominent senator” would “get through with her problems,” but it did not mention Biden or any sexual misconduct.
“The affidavit from Ms. Reade’s ex-husband is further support that Ms. Reade was sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by then-Senator Joe Biden,” Douglas Wigdor, Reade’s attorney, told the Tribune. “Ms. Reade’s account of what happened will shortly be aired in an interview by Megyn Kelly, and I am confident that the American public will see her genuine veracity.”
Kelly, a former Fox News host, conducted Reade’s first on-camera interview since Biden personally denied her claims in a Friday interview.
