Nearly two days after the allegation first emerged, evidence came to light on Sunday casting doubt on whether Joe Biden attended the 2008 event where a woman, Eva Murry, says he commented on her breasts when she was 14 years old.
J. Brian Murphy, who was the vice president of Delaware’s First State Gridiron dinner at the time, released a statement denying that Biden was in attendance.
“After reviewing my files of the dinner which included attendees and the show itself, I can conclusively say, Senator Biden was not at the dinner,” Murphy said in a letter dated Saturday.
An aide to Biden, written down as “John,” attended the annual dinner in his place, according to a copy of Biden’s personal schedule for May 3, 2008, which was obtained by Fox News. It was also noted that local reports at the time said Biden had a minor surgery the week of the dinner and was not working.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner on Sunday.
The allegation was reported by Law & Crime, but the news outlet quietly removed the story from its website after it was widely shared. The news site later reposted the story, noting the new documents cast doubt on the timing of the allegation. The updated piece also noted the Biden campaign, which did not respond to allegation initially, is now calling the claim “absolutely false.”
Murry, 26, told the outlet she accompanied her aunt to an annual dinner in Delaware, where Biden allegedly told her she was “well endowed” for her age.
“He looked me up and down and hovered his eyes on my chest, so I had some clue [about] the notion of his comment but didn’t fully understand at the time. We quickly separated from his area after the encounter,” she said.
Murry went public with her allegation in an April 8 Facebook post, deciding to share the story after noticing so many people talking about Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary. Initially, she shared it on others’ posts, but then, she made a larger post.
“I think I was too naive to realize exactly what it meant at the time, but I vividly remember the uncomfortable feeling I had in the pit of my stomach during the whole encounter. It wasn’t Biden’s words alone that made me so uncomfortable, it was the look, the tone, the whole general vibe was off,” Murry said.
The allegation surfaced after the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee gave his first personal public denial of allegations from Tara Reade, who accused him of sexually harassing and assaulting her when she worked in his Senate office in 1993.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the letter and statements disputing Eva Murry’s allegation.
