Exclusive: 1996 court document confirms Tara Reade told of harassment in Biden’s office

The San Luis Obispo Tribune ^ | May 7, 2020 | David Carracio

[an amused spectator]

The San Luis Obispo County court filing is the first official public record confirming she made allegations at that time.

A court document from 1996 shows former Senate staffer Tara Reade told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working for Joe Biden in 1993.

The declaration — exclusively obtained by The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California — does not say Biden committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade’s more recent allegations of sexual assault.

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.”

It appears to be the only written record that has surfaced from the time that substantiates Reade shared her account in the years following the alleged incident, though a former neighbor came forward last week about similar conversations she said she had with Reade in 1995.

[italianquaker]

Pretty soon slow joe will dropping out for health reasons, hope not because no reasonable American will vote for a man with dementia

[mass55th]

"Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the Chief of Staff of the Senator’s office and left her position."

I for one would like to know who that Chief of Staff was, and why no one has asked to speak to him/her about this.

The deal was probably that she'd drop any sexual harassment complaint in lieu of getting a good recommendation for another job. Would a Chief of Staff cut a deal with an ordinary office worker if the person who did the "harassment" wasn't someone important, like Joe Biden?

[an amused spectator]

Well, maybe the chief of staff is still alive and might remember “the deal”.

If he's not dead, he's sweating right now.

[an amused spectator]

Is this a liberal newspaper or does it lean conservative?

I don't know offhand.

[hinckley buzzard]

Those are not inconsistent. They do not represent a change. But you seem to have a personal problem here don’t you.

[an amused spectator]

Reade, who was a staff assistant in Biden's office at the time, said she wasn't aware of any direct witnesses to the encounter. She told the AP she did raise accusations of sexual harassment, but not assault, against Biden in multiple meetings with her supervisors, including Marianne Baker, Biden's executive assistant; Dennis Toner, Biden's deputy chief of staff; and Ted Kaufman, the senator's chief of staff.

In a statement provided by the campaign, Baker said that in the nearly two decades she worked for Biden, "I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone."

The AP spoke to five current or former Biden staffers on Sunday, all of whom worked for him at the time of the alleged incident. None recalled such an incident or a report, and neither Toner nor Kaufman could recall Reade. Both said what she had described was out of character for Biden.

"She did not come to me. I would have remembered her if she had, and I don't remember her at all," Kaufman said.

Reade said she filed a written report with a Senate personnel office. But she didn't receive a copy of it and has been unable to obtain one since because, she says, Biden's Senate files are currently at the University of Delaware, which has not yet made them public.

The wagons have been circled.

[Inspectorette]

Don’t know about the newspaper, but San Luis Obispo is a very liberal college town: Cal Poly SLO.

[Newtoidaho]

Ballsy Fraud spun a take years later to her therapist that had some names. None of those named corroborated what she said and not a single other person ever came forward to confirm anything Fraud claimed.

[SmokingJoe]

The wagons have been circled

Oh yes.

[an amused spectator]

Going for the standard Clinton defense: "No one recalls anything".

Interesting how Reade was just "erased" from the history of Biden's office.

[redshawk]

Thanks for the update
It seems Baker is not aware of the ex husband court papers.
The ex says it affected her greatly and will for a long time.

You don’t get that by a simple pinch on the rear. What happened to her must of been real nasty. Like that finger story.

[redshawk]

I think it should be easy to find out who he was.

[SmokingJoe]

Interesting how Reade was just “erased” from the history of Biden’s office.

Yup. And totally predictable. It's funny how the AP never run defence for Kavanaugh or bothered to do interviews with the hundreds of lawyers both conservative and liberal, who had worked with and for Kavanaugh in his long career who came out to strongly vouch for his impeccable character.

[RubyR]

They updated the original story to show he commented:

RESPONSE TO THE COURT DOCUMENT Asked for comment Thursday, the national press secretary for Biden’s presidential campaign, T.J. Ducklo, said the campaign is not commenting on the latest development at this time.

However, the campaign did provide a comment from Ted Kaufman, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time.

“I have consistently said what is the truth here — that she never came to me,” Kaufman said. “I do not remember her, and had she come to me in any of these circumstances, I would remember her. But I do not, because she did not.”

This story has been updated with a new headline and a comment from Ted Kaufman, Biden’s chief of staff in 1993.

[hawkaw]

Kaufman better hope there are no other documents out there like giving her a reference.

[redshawk]

Ted Kaufman......how does he explain the ex husband?
This hopefully doesn’t get ignored. Why would the ex lie about this? I think something nasty happened to her. I think she was paid to go away and be quiet. Kaufman made sure of it.