Tara Reade's Ex-Husband Claimed She'd Been Sexually Harassed While Working For Biden, 1996 Court Docs Show

Brittany M. Hughes | May 8, 2020
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Court documents from 1996 reveal Tara Reade, the former staffer who’s accused Joe Biden of sexual assaulting her back in the early ‘90s, told her then-husband she was experiencing problems with sexual harassment at her workplace.

At the time, Reade’s (now-ex) husband, Theodore Dronen, was contesting a restraining order Reade had filed against him during their divorce procedings, the San Louis Obispo Tribune reports. According to the court documents, Dronen testified about “a problem [Reade] was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.”

The document was dated March 25, 1996, three years after Dronen said he’d met Reade while they were both working for separate congressional offices. Dronen brought up the incident in court, saying that it would “color (Reade’s) perception and judgment” of her civil case against him, the Tribune reports.

Reade's attorney, Douglas Wigdor, told the Tribune that the documents prove Reade had been the target of sexual misconduct by Biden.

“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 has accused then-Senator Biden of shoving her against a wall and penetrating her with his fingers when she worked in his office back in 1993. Several people – including a friend of Reade’s, her brother, and a next door neighbor – have said on the record that Reade told them about the alleged assault around the time that it happened, saying she was afraid to go public with her claims for fear of retribution from a powerful lawmaker.

A video unearthed by the Media Research Center also shows an anonymous caller, later revealed to be Reade’s now-deceased mother, calling in to Larry King’s CNN show at the time and claiming her daughter was having a “problem” with a “prominent senator” for whom she worked, but that she couldn’t get the problem addressed in D.C. without going to the media.

Reade has since called on Biden to withdraw from the 2020 presidential race.

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