Remember how we said it was going to be hard for Joe Biden to argue away the Tara Reade allegations? It just got harder.
She just was interviewed by Megyn Kelly and called for Biden to drop out. She also said that she was willing to go under oath to prove her point.
Not only does she have several witnesses who say that she told them about sexual harassment and/or sexual assault relatively contemporaneously, including a call allegedly from her mother to CNN’s Larry King show in 1993 alleging a problem with prominent senator that was press worthy.
Now there’s more.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune is breaking a story about new evidence. Court documents from a restraining order that Reade filed against her ex-husband during their divorce include a statement from the husband that she told him about the sexual harassment in Biden’s office, although it does not specifically name Biden as the harasser.
Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen wrote the court declaration. Dronen at the time was contesting a restraining order Reade filed against him days after he filed for divorce, Superior Court records show.
In it, he writes Reade told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.” [….]
Dronen wrote that Reade told him she “eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position.”
“It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected (sic) by it today,” Dronen wrote.
This is the first written evidence found backing her claim.
Reade has said that she was first harassed and then sexually assaulted by Biden.
It adds one more brick to what is looking like a pretty strong story.
Biden’s press secretary, T.J. Ducklo, refused comment when asked about the new information. Ted Kaufman, who was his chief of staff at the time and who is now on his transition team, said that she never complained to him as she says.
Reade’s New York-based attorney, Douglas Wigdor, also provided a statement to The Tribune on Thursday:
“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,” Wigdor wrote in an email. “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.”
Reade, 56, told The Tribune last week that she does not plan to vote in the upcoming presidential election in November. She has called for Biden to “stand up” and “step down” from the presidential race, but also said she does not support U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I would say stand up and take full account for what you’ve done and for your past treatment of women,” Reade told The Tribune in a phone interview on May 1, when asked what she would like to say to her former boss. “He holds himself up as a champion of women, but the fact remains that his personal life did not reflect his public life.”
“I want him to address it, and admit it, and modify his behavior, and step down,” she added.