Tara Reade, the woman accusing Joe Biden of having sexually assaulted her in the early 1990s, is calling on the former vice president to release his congressional papers in hopes of shedding further light on the allegation.
Reade, who served as a staffer in Biden’s Senate office between 1992 and 1993, came forward last month to reveal there was more to the allegations of unwanted touching than she first brought against the former vice president in April 2019. According to Reade, she was not only sexually harassed while working for Biden, but also allegedly the victim of sexual assault. Reade claims that then-Senator Joe Biden pushed her up against a wall, forcibly kissed her, and digitally penetrated her sometime in 1993.
The purported assault, which Reade claims took place either in the U.S. Capitol or the Russell Senate Office Building, has been vehemently denied by the former vice president’s campaign. The denial has been echoed by Biden allies, including onetime members of his Senate staff.
On Tuesday, Reade told the Daily Caller that it was time for the former vice president to release his congressional papers, including all personnel files. The papers could potentially shed light on not only the supposed assault, but also the discriminatory actions Biden’s office allegedly took afterwards to force Reade out of her job.
“You ended my career,” she said. “You ended my job after you assaulted me. You claim to be the champion of women’s rights, but your public persona does not match your personal actions.”
As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, Biden’s Senate papers may hold the key to the newfound allegation. Reade claims while employed by Biden’s office she raised concerns about being sexually harassed with her superiors, although she did not mention the supposed assault. She also claims that she filed a written report with the Senate personnel office laying out the misconduct.
To date, Reade has not been able to obtain a copy of the personnel report. She claims her inability stems from the fact that Biden’s Senate papers were donated to the University of Delaware in 2011.
Neither are the papers likely to become public any time soon. The documents, which fill 1,875 boxes and include 415 gigabytes of electronic records, were to be made public on Dec. 31, 2019, according to an agreement the former vice president entered into with the University of Delaware upon donating his papers.
Those parameters, though, were changed on April 24, 2019—the day before Biden declared his 2020 campaign—when the university announced the trove of documents would now be made public on Dec. 31 or “two years” after the former vice president “retires from public life.” At the time, the university provided no definition for what it considered “public life,” leaving open the final date for release.
Among the documents are “committee reports, drafts of legislation,” and official correspondance. It is uncertain if documents pertaining to personnel issues or employment complaints would be among the papers, but internal correspondance regarding Reade or her allegations by Biden’s Senate staff are likely to be included. The latter is all the more likely given Reade’s claims of having discussed her accusations with superiors and the hasty nature in which she left her position after the alleged assault took place.
The University of Delaware has refused to provide the initial agreement they entered into when taking on Biden’s papers. The school has further refrained from discussing any changes that were made to that agreement and by whom. Likewise, the former vice president’s staff has brushed off questions as whether they would allow the documents to be released earlier than the intended deadline.
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