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Examining Tara Reade's Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden

Ms. Reade, a former Senate adjutant, has defendant Mr. Biden of assaulting her in 1993 and says she told others about information technology. A Biden spokeswoman said the allegation is false, and former Senate role staff members practice not recall such an incident.

Credit... Max Whittaker for The New York Times

Published April 12, 2020 Updated Sept. 28, 2020

WASHINGTON — A former Senate aide who last year accused Joseph R. Biden Jr. of inappropriate touching has made an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president, the Democratic Political party's presumptive presidential nominee this fall.

The sometime aide, Tara Reade, who briefly worked as a staff assistant in Mr. Biden's Senate part, told The New York Times that in 1993, Mr. Biden pinned her to a wall in a Senate building, reached under her wear and penetrated her with his fingers. A friend said that Ms. Reade told her the details of the allegation at the time. Another friend and a brother of Ms. Reade's said she told them over the years about a traumatic sexual incident involving Mr. Biden.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Biden said the allegation was false. In interviews, several people who worked in the Senate role with Ms. Reade said they did non call up whatever talk of such an incident or similar behavior by Mr. Biden toward her or whatever women. Two part interns who worked directly with Ms. Reade said they were unaware of the allegation or whatever treatment that troubled her.

Last year, Ms. Reade and seven other women came forward to accuse Mr. Biden of kissing, hugging or touching them in ways that fabricated them experience uncomfortable. Ms. Reade told The Times and then that Mr. Biden had publicly stroked her cervix, wrapped his fingers in her hair and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable.

Soon after Ms. Reade fabricated the new allegation, in a podcast interview released on March 25, The Times began reporting on her account and seeking corroboration through interviews, documents and other sources. The Times interviewed Ms. Reade on multiple days over hours, as well as those she told about Mr. Biden'due south behavior and other friends. The Times has too interviewed lawyers who spoke to Ms. Reade nearly her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Mr. Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Ms. Reade; and the other 7 women who criticized Mr. Biden last yr, to hash out their experiences with him.

No other accusation about sexual assault surfaced in the form of reporting, nor did any quondam Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade's allegation. The Times institute no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.

On Thursday, Ms. Reade filed a study with the Washington, D.C., police, saying she was the victim of a sexual assault in 1993; the public incident study, provided to The Times by Ms. Reade and the police, does not mention Mr. Biden past name, but she said the complaint was about him. Ms. Reade said she filed the report to give herself an boosted degree of condom from potential threats. Filing a false police force written report may exist punishable by a fine and imprisonment.

Ms. Reade, who worked equally a staff assistant helping manage the office interns, said she as well filed a complaint with the Senate in 1993 about Mr. Biden; she said she did non have a copy of it, and such paperwork has not been located. The Biden campaign said information technology did not have a complaint. The Times reviewed an official re-create of her employment history from the Senate that she provided showing she was hired in December 1992 and paid by Mr. Biden's office until August 1993.

The 7 other women who had complained about Mr. Biden told the Times this month that they did not have any new information about their experiences to add, just several said they believed Ms. Reade'south business relationship.

Prototype

Credit... John Duricka/Associated Press

Last yr, Mr. Biden, 77, acknowledged the women's complaints about his conduct, proverb his intentions were benign and promising to be "more mindful and respectful of people'south personal infinite."

In response to Ms. Reade'south accusation, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy Biden entrada managing director, said in a statement: "Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed past an contained press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This admittedly did not happen."

Ms. Reade made her new allegation public every bit Mr. Biden was closing in on the Autonomous presidential nomination later winning a string of primaries against his chief rival, Senator Bernie Sanders. Ms. Reade, who describes herself as a "third-generation Democrat," said she originally favored Marianne Williamson and Senator Elizabeth Warren in the race but voted for Mr. Sanders in the California chief terminal month. She said her decision to come forward had nothing to do with politics or helping Mr. Sanders, and said neither his campaign nor the Trump entrada had encouraged her to make her allegation.

President Trump has been accused of sexual attack and misconduct by more than than a dozen women, who accept described a pattern of beliefs that went far beyond the accusations against Mr. Biden. The president besides directed illegal payments, including $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, earlier the 2016 election to silence women about alleged affairs with Mr. Trump, co-ordinate to federal prosecutors.

Mr. Trump has even boasted virtually his mistreatment of women; in a 2005 recording, he described pushing himself on women and said he would "catch them by the pussy," bragging that he could get away with "annihilation" because of his glory.

Nonetheless, Mr. Trump has at times attacked opponents over their handling of women. The president has not mentioned Ms. Reade's allegation, which has circulated on social media and in liberal and bourgeois news outlets.

Ms. Reade's account

Image

Credit... via Tara Reade

Ms. Reade, 56, told The Times that the attack happened in the leap of 1993. She said she had tracked downward Mr. Biden to deliver an athletic purse when he pushed her against a cold wall, started kissing her neck and hair and propositioned her. He slid his hand up her cream-colored blouse, she said, and used his knee to role her bare legs before reaching nether her skirt.

"It happened at in one case. He's talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly," she recalled. "He was kissing me and he said, very low, 'Do you lot want to go somewhere else?'"

Ms. Reade said she pulled away and Mr. Biden stopped.

"He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked," she said. "He said, 'Come on, man, I heard you lot liked me.'"

At the fourth dimension, Ms. Reade said she worried whether she had done something wrong to encourage his advances.

"He pointed his finger at me and he just goes: 'You're zilch to me. Nothing,'" she said. "Then, he took my shoulders and said, 'You're OK, you're fine.'"

Mr. Biden walked down the hallway, Ms. Reade said, and she cleaned up in a restroom, made her mode home and, sobbing, chosen her mother, who encouraged her to immediately file a police report.

Instead, Ms. Reade said, she complained to Marianne Bakery, Mr. Biden's executive assistant, as well as to two top aides, Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman, about harassment by Mr. Biden — not mentioning the alleged attack.

The staff declined to take activeness, Ms. Reade said, afterward which she filed a written complaint with a Senate personnel office. She said function staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless part; and made the piece of work environs uncomfortable for her.

She said Mr. Kaufman later on told her she was non a expert fit in the office, giving her a month to look for a job. Ms. Reade never secured some other position in Washington.

In an interview, Mr. Kaufman, a longtime friend of Mr. Biden's who was his master of staff at the fourth dimension, said: "I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her."

Mr. Toner, who worked for Mr. Biden for over three decades, said the allegation was out of character for Mr. Biden. Other senators and function staffs had reputations for harassing women at work and partying after hours, according to those who worked in the office at the fourth dimension. Mr. Biden was known for racing to grab the train to get dwelling to Wilmington, Del., every night.

"It's merely so preposterous that Senator Biden would exist faced with these allegations," said Mr. Toner, who was deputy chief of staff when Ms. Reade worked in the function. "I don't retrieve her. I don't remember this chat. And I would remember this conversation."

The Biden campaign issued a argument from Ms. Bakery, Mr. Biden's executive assistant from 1982 to 2000.

"I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, flow — not from Ms. Reade, non from anyone," she said. "I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade's accounting of events, which would accept left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and every bit a manager."

Melissa Lefko, a former staff banana for Mr. Biden from 1992 to 1993, said she did not remember Ms. Reade. Only she recalled that Mr. Biden'southward office was a "very supportive environment for women" and said she had never experienced any kind of harassment at that place.

"When you work on the Hill, everyone knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and Biden was a skillful guy," she said.

Ms. Reade said that she could not remember the exact time, date or location of the attack but that information technology occurred in a "semiprivate" identify in the Senate part complex.

A friend said that Ms. Reade told her about the alleged assault at the time, in 1993. A second friend recalled Ms. Reade telling her in 2008 that Mr. Biden had touched her inappropriately and that she'd had a traumatic experience while working in his office. Both friends agreed to speak to The Times on the condition of anonymity to protect the privacy of their families and their self-owned businesses.

Ms. Reade said she also told her brother, who has confirmed parts of her business relationship publicly but who did not speak to The Times, and her female parent, who has since died.

Differing recollections

At the time of the alleged set on, Ms. Reade said she was responsible for coordinating the interns in the function. Ii former interns who worked with her said they never heard her describe any inappropriate conduct by Mr. Biden or saw her directly interact with him in any chapters but recalled that she abruptly stopped supervising them in April, before the finish of their internship. Others who worked in the function at the time said they remembered Ms. Reade just not whatever inappropriate behavior.

Friends and former co-workers describe Ms. Reade as friendly, caring, compassionate and trustworthy, though perhaps a bit naïve. A single mother, she changed her proper noun for protection afterwards leaving an abusive marriage in the late 1990s and put herself through law school in Seattle. After leaving Mr. Biden's office, she eventually returned to the West Declension, where she worked for a state senator; equally an abet for domestic violence survivors, testifying every bit an expert witness in court; and for animal rescue organizations.

During her fourth dimension in Mr. Biden's function, he was working to pass the Violence Confronting Women Act, which Mr. Biden has described as his "proudest legislative achievement." In 2017, Ms. Reade retweeted praise for Mr. Biden and his piece of work combating sexual set on. In more recent months, her feed has featured support for Mr. Sanders and criticism of Mr. Biden.

Image

Credit... Barry Thumma/Associated Press

Ms. Reade said she did not disclose the sexual assault allegation last year when she spoke out because she was scared. After her initial complaints were reported last twelvemonth past a local California newspaper, Ms. Reade said she faced a wave of criticism and expiry threats, every bit well as accusations that she was a Russian agent considering of Medium posts and tweets, several of which are now deleted, she had written praising President Vladimir Putin.

Ms. Reade said that she was not working for Russian federation and did not support Mr. Putin, and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing at the time.

"Information technology was trying to smear me and distract from what happened, but it won't modify the facts of what happened in 1993," she said.

She called her praise for Mr. Putin "misguided."

Ms. Reade tried to get legal and public relations support from the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, an initiative established by prominent women in Hollywood to fight sexual harassment. Her outreach to the group was first reported by The Intercept.

As information technology has for thousands of people who have contacted the grouping, the Time'south Up Legal Defense Fund, which does not represent clients, gave her a listing of lawyers with expertise in such cases. She said she contacted every unmarried 1 but none took her case. Two lawyers confirmed speaking to Ms. Reade but declined to annotate on the tape about her or the allegation.

SKDKnickerbocker, the political consulting firm where Mr. Biden'due south chief strategist, Anita Dunn, works as a director, has a contract with the Time'southward Upward legal defense fund. Ms. Dunn has never worked with the fund and her house was not told of Ms. Reade's asking, according to officials at the fund.

Ms. Reade as well contacted at to the lowest degree one of the women who spoke out along with her last twelvemonth well-nigh Mr. Biden's penchant for concrete contact.

Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman who accused Mr. Biden of making her uncomfortable by kissing and touching her during a 2014 campaign event, exchanged a few emails last year with Ms. Reade but said Ms. Reade did non share her full story.

"Biden is non only a hugger," Ms. Flores said. "Biden very conspicuously was invading women'south spaces without their consent in a style that made them feel uncomfortable. Does he potentially have the capacity to go beyond that? That'southward the answer everyone is trying to become at."

Heed to 'The Daily': Examining the Allegation Against Joe Biden

What nosotros know most the police report filed past Tara Reade, who said the sexual assail complaint is nearly her former boss, now the prospective Democratic presidential candidate.

transcript

transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Examining the Allegation Against Joe Biden

Hosted by Michael Barbaro; produced by Rachel Quester and Luke Vander Ploeg; with help from Theo Balcomb; and edited by Grand.J. Davis Lin and Lisa Grub

What nosotros know nigh the police written report filed by Tara Reade, who said the sexual assail complaint is most her former boss, at present the prospective Democratic presidential candidate.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'1000 Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

Today: A former Senate aide to Joe Biden has accused him of assaulting her in 1993. My colleague Lisa Lerer examines the allegation.

Information technology's Tuesday, April 14.

Lisa, when did you brainstorm reporting this story?

lisa lerer

And so about a yr ago, we were reporting on allegations from a number of women who came out and said that Joe Biden had touched them in ways that fabricated them feel uncomfortable.

archived recording

Tonight, Joe Biden is facing troubling accusations. Nevada Democrat Lucy Flores claims the quondam vice president inappropriately touched and kissed her head before a rally in 2014.

lisa lerer

Maybe it was a squeeze on the shoulder, perhaps he smelled their hair —

archived recording (lucy flores)

— out of nowhere, I feel Joe Biden put his hands on my shoulders, get upwardly very close to me from behind, lean in, scent my hair and so found a slow kiss on the height of my head.

lisa lerer

Merely this was all happening in public, at campaign rallies, at fund-raisers.

archived recording 1

He put his easily around my head and pulled me in.

archived recording 2

Former congressional aide Amy Lappos told CBS News tonight that Joe Biden reached for her confront and rubbed noses with her during a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut in 2009.

lisa lerer

And nosotros in the newsroom and in the media, nosotros're really grappling with how to think and talk nigh this beliefs. This wasn't anything similar what had normally come up in a lot of these discussions around #MeToo, like Harvey Weinstein or any of that.

archived recording (lucy flores)

And for the record, I don't believe that it was a bad intention. I'thousand not in whatever way suggesting that I felt sexually assaulted or sexually harassed. I felt invaded. I felt that at that place was a violation of my personal space. There was no —

lisa lerer

The women talking about these allegations weren't quite sure what to call information technology. Some of them said quite vehemently that they didn't consider it sexual harassment. But they wanted the former vice president to exist aware of his behavior and how it could make people experience. Others had a slightly different perspective. They thought it was something closer to sexual harassment. And then this goes on for really a couple weeks. And in the stop, Biden — he doesn't quite apologize.

archived recording (joe biden)

Today, I want to talk about gestures of support and encouragement that I've made to women and some men, and it made them uncomfortable.

lisa lerer

Simply he comes out and he makes an online video where he says that he has a very touchy feely kind of political style.

archived recording (joe biden)

In my career, I've always tried to make a human connection. That'south my responsibility, I think. I shake hands, I hug people, I grab men and women by the shoulders and say, you can exercise this.

lisa lerer

Just he recognizes that times have inverse, and perhaps he needs to change with them and be more respectful of people's space.

archived recording (joe biden)

You lot know, social norms have begun to change, they've shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset. And I get it. I get it. I hear what they're saying. I understand it. And I'll exist much more mindful. That's my responsibility. My responsibleness. And I'll meet it.

lisa lerer

And and so, I met Tara Reade.

And she had chosen me with sort of similar kind of story. Joe Biden had touched her, he'd put his easily in her hair, he touched her shoulders, all in public, in ways that actually made her feel uncomfortable. But her story had a footling bit of a different twist. And then she, at the fourth dimension, had been working in his Senate function. And this was virtually — I retrieve Dec 1992 to August 1993. She was a low-level staffer, a staff banana. And she said that the touching had gone beyond just easily in the pilus and squeezes of the shoulder. That there had been harassment.

michael barbaro

Hm.

lisa lerer

She says he had asked her to serve drinks at a cocktail party. He had commented on her looks in the office, in front of other people. And that she felt that he had cultivated a culture in his role that fostered and permitted this kind of sexual harassment.

michael barbaro

And what did you do with Reade's story, with that reporting?

lisa lerer

Well, I talked to her. I talked to her friend, who corroborated a lot of what she was telling me. We did use her allegations to call a whole bunch of people who had worked in Joe Biden's office in the 1990s — specially the early on 1990s, which was the period that Tara Reade was working in that location — to run into if they remembered any kind of harassment, what the environment of the part was at the time. But we didn't really come up with annihilation all that surprising or explosive. Nobody actually confirmed her account at that time. And then we actually didn't finish up reporting them in the newspaper. We had already reported on a number of allegations from these women who said that they were uncomfortable with Joe Biden's touching. And we just sort of moved on. And the political world did too. Everyone moved on to the adjacent battle. There was the Mueller report to contend with, then a actually competitive primary, presidential debates started. So this issue of the unwanted touching and Tara's story simply never came support.

michael barbaro

Mm hmm. And Lisa, do you recollect that has something to do with the fact that Biden confronted this, talked about it and said he was learning from information technology?

lisa lerer

Oh, for certain. Simply he was actually forced into against information technology. I hateful, this was a menstruum in March, in Apr, earlier Biden had formally announced his presidential bid, where he was going through the process of reconciling a lot of his record with the current mores of the Democratic Party. He was dealing with his criminal justice tape, he was dealing with his positions on abortion and sort of moving to the left with the party. And so I recall that quasi-amends video was part of that process. You have a Democratic Party that's acutely aware of issues of racial and gender bias, and Biden had to eventually reconcile those criticisms — whether he felt they were fair or non — with where the political party was. Only ultimately, he didn't pay much of a cost for it. He appear his entrada a couple three or so weeks later. His opponents never made an issue of this and everything sort of moved on.

michael barbaro

OK, then what happens side by side?

lisa lerer

Well, you take the primary race. Then Biden, every bit we all know, nosedives. Then he comes dorsum up, he becomes the front end-runner. And effectually that time —

archived recording (katie halper)

Hello, and welcome to the Katie Halper Testify.

lisa lerer

A woman goes on a podcast —

archived recording (katie halper)

Where would yous like to start? Where does the story starting time for you?

archived recording (tara reade)

Well, the story starts when I went to work for Joe Biden.

lisa lerer

And levels a really serious, serious accusation confronting Joe Biden, which is basically that he sexually assaulted her.

archived recording (tara reade)

And my torso — I was shaking everywhere, because it was cold suddenly, and I was — I don't know, I feel like I was shaking, simply everywhere. And I was trying to grasp what had just happened, and what I should do.

lisa lerer

And that adult female, who tells her story in corking item on this podcast, is Tara Reade.

michael barbaro

So what are you thinking at this betoken? Because y'all had already talked to this woman, and she had not mentioned this kind of allegation, right?

lisa lerer

Well, I must admit, I'grand a little confused, considering it didn't come up up at all. And and then the first thing I did was pull upward my notes. And when I look over my notes and I read the story she had told me a year agone, there'due south some holes in that story she told me. Things I remember thinking that her reaction was maybe a bit extreme for what she said she was experiencing in the function at the fourth dimension. That maybe make a lilliputian more sense if this other matter had in fact happened — this sexual assault. And then I wondered, commencement of all, had she been true the first time effectually? Was she being truthful now? And as well, whether I had asked the correct questions. Did I miss something because I hadn't called back, considering I got defenseless up with the dynamics of this primary?

michael barbaro

So at this bespeak — after Tara Reade has gone on this podcast, she has made this merits, and yous're trying to figure out why she didn't first tell you that same data — how are y'all now approaching this story, journalistically?

lisa lerer

And so I recollect we all quickly agreed that it wasn't a question of whether nosotros would approach the story, but how. This was a woman who was making very serious allegations of sexual assault with her name attached, publicly, against the man who is more than likely to become the Democratic nominee for president. And so we had to grapple with these claims. The question was, how? And I think the natural matter to do — really, the human thing to do — is to become into a story like this and say, practice you believe or not believe the person who's making the allegation? But that's non the journalistic affair to do. We're not judges, we're non the jury, we're not the police department. I was really focused on what we could show to be true and what we could show to not be truthful. What we had corroboration on, and what we didn't accept corroboration on. And what kind of facts nosotros could requite voters and the American public about this whole incident, that'southward already out in the world and being passed effectually quite actively on social media. People knew near information technology.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

Just they didn't know the details, and they didn't really know what was true or not.

michael barbaro

And so where practise y'all brainstorm equally y'all're trying to figure this all out?

lisa lerer

Well, so the main matter I needed to practice was go Tara Reade back on the telephone. So that's where I began.

michael barbaro

Nosotros'll exist right dorsum.

And then Lisa, tell me nigh this, I estimate, second round of communications that you have with Tara Reade, after she claims that Joe Biden has assaulted her.

lisa lerer

So I telephone call her, and we start talking every day. And the obvious first question I inquire her is why she didn't tell me well-nigh these allegations when we talked a year ago. And she tells me that even though they weren't published in The New York Times, they were published in a local paper. And the feedback she got from that being out at that place, the kind of death threats and harassment online, made her reluctant to tell the rest of her story. So nosotros talk through all that, and then somewhen, I say to her that I demand her to tell me the story that she told on that podcast in a manner that nosotros can use on the record. And I start recording her.

interposing voices

Hullo? Tin you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. Yep, I got you.

michael barbaro

And what does she say?

lisa lerer

So where do you want to start?

tara reade

OK. So let's get-go with the assail.

lisa lerer

Then the story that I'm about to tell you is all according to Tara Reade. Then it's 1993, in the spring some time, and she's working every bit a staff banana in Joe Biden'south Senate role. And one day, she'southward at work, and her supervisor comes up to her and has this athletic bag — this gym purse — and asks her if she would observe the senator and bring him his gym bag.

tara reade

She but said, take him his gym bag, bustle! And she was like, he'll meet you, he's downward towards the Capitol.

lisa lerer

And then she heads downward and finds him somewhere in the Capitol complex of offices.

tara reade

And I ran into him, like I saw him, and I — he acknowledged me, he was talking to someone, they walked away. And so he said, come hither, Tara. And and then he smiled at me, greeted me.

lisa lerer

And she says, hello, Senator.

tara reade

I chosen him "Senator." I didn't call him "Joe." And I handed him the bag with my right mitt, I recollect that.

lisa lerer

And the next thing she remembers, he's pinned her upwards against a wall, which she remembers as being very, very cold. And he's kissing her.

tara reade

Information technology happened at one time, and that's what's and then hard about telling this story. Similar he'due south talking to me, and his easily are everywhere, and everything'due south happening at once very quickly. This happened, like, in under two minutes.

lisa lerer

And co-ordinate to Tara, he reaches his hand nether her shirt — she remembers she was wearing a foam-colored blouse — grabs her left breast.

tara reade

He used his knee to part my knees, considering my legs went together. And he went kind of down my skirt, and so as he's parting my legs with his knee, he like went up, and so just went under. And then, of course, yeah, he was able to practise what he did, which was he took — it felt similar one or two fingers, and inserted them in my vagina.

lisa lerer

And at that point, he'southward kissing her and he says to her, she says, do you want to get somewhere else? And he tried — she said — to kiss her on the rima oris, but she moves her head.

tara reade

And and so he pulled back, because I wasn't responding to him, I wasn't kissing him back. I completely froze up, and he had kind of lifted me upwards, so I was like up on my tippy toes almost. And and then he looked back and he looked at me —

lisa lerer

And he looks at her, and he says, according to her —

tara reade

Come on, homo. I heard y'all liked me. And then he smiled, but then when I looked at his eyes, he was angry. Like at that place —

lisa lerer

And she said she remembers standing there, only kind of frozen, and she felt almost a piddling bad, like she had put him in a bad position. And she was wondering what she did to make him think that she would exist interested in this. And co-ordinate to Tara, he looked her and he said —

tara reade

He pointed his finger at me and he just goes, you're — you're nothing to me. And then he looked at me, and he goes, null.

lisa lerer

You're naught to me. Nothing. And she thinks she must accept looked a certain mode or had a certain expression in her middle, considering and then he kind of took her past the shoulders and patted her shoulders, and said, you lot're OK, you're fine. And he kind of almost prepare her down, she said, and then he walked off and walked downwards the hall.

tara reade

I know I went to the restroom, I know I did, to clean upwards. Simply I don't remember which restroom I went to in the Russell Building or in that location — I don't know. Simply I know I did. But my vivid memory next is sitting — I was trying to pull myself together in the back stairs at the Russell Building with those big windows. I remember just sitting on the stairs, and nobody was there. And but similar my whole body was literally — I couldn't command my shaking. I retrieve simply existence so common cold. And so cold.

lisa lerer

And and then she headed abode. She doesn't recollect how she got there. She doesn't remember whether she went back into the office and got her purse or talked to everyone. But she made it home to her flat.

tara reade

The adjacent matter I remember is existence on the phone with my mom and crying and then arguing with her.

lisa lerer

And her mother tells her in fairly firm linguistic communication that she needs to immediately file a police study.

tara reade

You know, she fifty-fifty swore at me. She was non being gentle and supportive, and I understand, considering she wanted me to accept show. And now I understand what she was trying to do, and I didn't then.

lisa lerer

Merely Tara doesn't do that.

michael barbaro

And does she say why she did non go to the police?

lisa lerer

Well, what she says is that she basically just wanted the whole thing to go away, is what she told me. That afterwards it happened, she took a shower. She says she threw out all her clothes that she was wearing at the time.

tara reade

I threw everything out. Even the shoes. Everything. Similar, I just — that's how I felt near it.

lisa lerer

Really? What kind of —

lisa lerer

She tells me that she called in sick to work, that she was sobbing uncontrollably.

tara reade

It's like I just didn't want it to have happened. It merely didn't happen.

michael barbaro

And what does she say happens in the days and maybe even weeks later this alleged incident?

lisa lerer

So she tells me eventually she does go back to work. And when she does, she says that she tells her immediate supervisor, who's Biden's personal secretary, likewise every bit two meridian staffers in the part — the deputy primary of staff and the chief of staff — that she feels uncomfortable around Joe Biden. She never mentions the alleged set on, but she talks more about feeling uncomfortable with him touching her shoulders or tangling his hands in her hair. And in her telling, the staff don't really do anything about that. In fact, she feels that they kind of penalize her for bringing that forward. She says they strip her of one of her duties, which is supervising the interns. She says they put her in a windowless function, far from the rest of the staff. So at some point, she says that she goes to a Senate personnel function and files a formal complaint.

michael barbaro

And what does she say was in this complaint?

lisa lerer

She said that complaint really detailed the harassment and what she saw as retaliation in the part. Simply she believes that that forum somewhen was returned to Biden's office, which would have been a flouting of what the official protocol was at that time. And in one case that complaint was returned to Biden'due south office, she says, she was given a month to find a new job, and basically eased out of her position. And so she started looking for some other position on Capitol Hill, she says, and never concluded up getting hired or finding anything.

michael barbaro

So Lisa, one time Tara Reade has given yous this account of an alleged assail, what do you do adjacent?

lisa lerer

Then at this point, she's told me a lot of data. And some actually detailed information likewise. And then I start thinking about what can be corroborated, what we tin can testify to be truthful and what we can prove to be not true. And one thing that Tara mentions to me is that at the time, she had called a friend and told her the whole story. So I tracked down the friend.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

And in large part, she corroborates the story that Tara had told me. Tara tells me she also told her mother. Her mother is deceased, so she can't be called. And she told a version of her story to her brother, though not all the details. Then I start trying to runway down her brother. And she tells me she told a friend in 2008, after Joe Biden had been picked as Barack Obama's vice president. She had told a version of this story to that friend, without all the details, just that something had happened to her. And then I tracked down that friend, and she confirms that business relationship and some of the things that Tara tells me.

michael barbaro

Where does that go out y'all?

lisa lerer

So information technology leaves united states with something, only certainly not enough to approve this entire story. We really only accept the i friend with the total story, and anybody else is just giving us bits and pieces. So that's not the kind of full corroboration that you're looking for as a announcer, when you're trying to ostend really serious allegations and also really politically explosive allegations. Merely at this point, information technology'due south time to turn to the Biden side of things. And then along with my colleague Sydney Ember, we start looking at who we tin talk to. And we start by calling the three height staffers in the office at the time that Tara had mentioned she had spoken with, and she had raised those complaints of harassment to. All 3 of them say that a woman named Tara Reade never approached them with these kind of allegations, and ii of them said they didn't remember her at all even working in the office.

michael barbaro

So just to be articulate, the 3 people that Tara Reade said she went to and told of Biden'due south behavior that made her uncomfortable, pretty senior people in his office, they say they have no recollection of that ever happening?

lisa lerer

Exactly. They accept no recollection. And a lot of the former staffers are mystified by her account too. They don't remember anything similar this, or even the hint of anything similar this. And then they — when Sydney and I call them, they're trying to reconcile themselves her story with what they call back from working in that office. A lot of them didn't want to talk on the record. One who did said that at the fourth dimension, y'all knew who the good guys and bad guys were on the Senate. The places where — offices where women would and would not want to work, and she described Biden as ane of the practiced guys.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

And so after that, nosotros reached out to another group of people, which is the interns. And that'southward because Tara had told me that she supervised the interns, and that she shared an office with these interns. So I reached two of them, and they both tell me that they'd never heard of anything, never saw anything like the kind of harassment and assault Tara had been alleging. Just that they did remember midway through their internship, sometime in Apr, she had been of a sudden removed as their boss. And they never knew why, and they never saw her once again. So amid all this confusion, I recollect that there's one thing that really could cut through all this and clarify exactly what did or did not happen.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

And that's this complaint that Tara had told me she filed in 1993 with the Senate function —

michael barbaro

Right.

lisa lerer

— and that someone had written down. So we start trying to runway downward that complaint. And we call the Federal Role of Personnel Direction, and they tell us to file a Freedom of Information request, which would accept months, if not years. And anyhow, we don't really know exactly what we're asking for, because she doesn't remember the name of the role where she filed this complaint.

michael barbaro

Right.

lisa lerer

We call over to the Senate and we're able to get some employment records, but not this complaint. So we basically look for this document and come up up empty. Information technology's unfindable in the finish.

michael barbaro

What about other aspects of Reade'southward life that might feel relevant? I hateful, possible political affiliations or motivations. How do you begin to think and report on those?

lisa lerer

Well, so i affair that nosotros want to be actually sure of is that she is who she says she is. And that this isn't someone in the midst of a heated presidential campaign — that's only, of course, going to get more heated by all expectations — that is trying to push an agenda, or perhaps flim-flam the media to try to become claims that are untrue out in that location in the public. Then I really talked to her a lot about her political affiliation. She describes herself as a third-generation Democrat, but walks me through the fact that she liked Marianne Williamson. She really liked Elizabeth Warren. and when California voted in the primary over Super Tuesday, she backed Bernie Sanders. Just she insists that her motivation for this is not political, even though I had watched every bit supporters of Sanders and supporters of President Trump, really, are the ones pushing this allegation out in that location on social media, and really keeping the drumbeat up for people to investigate information technology. So that's one concern. And there is this other unusual detail.

michael barbaro

Which is what?

lisa lerer

Well, she had written a off-white amount in Medium posts and on Twitter nearly her support for Russian federation and her respect for Vladimir Putin. And and then nosotros read through all those Medium posts. Some of them had been pulled down off the net, just we institute them. We looked through those erstwhile Twitter posts, and we really tried to investigate whether there could exist some kind of nefarious agenda there. And she says that she was misguided. Tara Reade says that she had been working on a novel — she's not anymore — about Russia, and this was all office of her inquiry. And she says that she doesn't have whatsoever respect for Vladimir Putin now, has never been to Russia. So we decide that that'due south not so disqualifying that it prevents us from putting a version of her story in the paper.

michael barbaro

So how are you thinking about everything that you have reported at this point? And I presume, in consultation with your editors, how are yous planning to proceed?

lisa lerer

Well, one thing we know is that we tin't corroborate her story beyond the two friends and her blood brother.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

We know we can't find whatsoever documents, and we know that everyone who worked for Joe Biden is denying that annihilation like this ever happened, or could accept happened.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

lisa lerer

And we also know one other matter. And this is really important. As far as nosotros've learned in our reporting, there is no design of this kind of behavior from Joe Biden. What we had seen a twelvemonth ago was a very different thing. Information technology was touching in public, rubbing of shoulders, or maybe touching of hair that made some women feel uncomfortable. This is an allegation of a sexual attack. Those things are not at all similar. And in fact, what Tara Reade is alleging is a adequately singular act, as far as we know. Simply the Democratic Party, they've really set a very loftier standard for taking these cases seriously, for taking allegations of sexual abuse seriously. Fifty-fifty Joe Biden has taken a strong position on this, and it's worth remembering the Kavanaugh hearings. And one thing that Joe Biden said when that was all going on was this, he said: "For a woman to come up forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, yous've got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she's talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or non it'south been made worse or ameliorate over time. But nobody fails to sympathise that this is like jumping into a cauldron.

michael barbaro

Then it's Biden himself proverb, essentially, believe women.

lisa lerer

That'south exactly right. Biden essentially maxim, believe women. And I call up that explains function of the arroyo to these allegations that yous've seen from his campaign. Joe Biden himself has not spoken about them at all, and I don't think he's been asked directly, although I suppose that could come up. Only his campaign has been very careful in all their public statements to say that they believe women, that they remember coming out like this is a apparent matter to do. But in this case, they say the allegations are false. Only they're really walking a tightrope when they talk about this politically, with many in the base of the Democratic Political party.

michael barbaro

Well, help me understand that. I mean, with all that history in mind that you just described, of the Autonomous Party setting such a high standard for itself — and Biden himself, the presumptive Autonomous nominee, proverb, believe women — how is the Democratic establishment, how is the Autonomous Party responding to what Tara Reade has alleged happened to her?

lisa lerer

They're not responding. Nobody in the Autonomous establishment, elected officials, party leaders, has discussed this at all.

michael barbaro

Why do you think that is? I mean, is that a function of the conflicting information here? Is that party loyalty to the de facto nominee? Is that near the fact that in that location is just ane of these accusations, non a pattern, as you merely said? How do you explain that?

lisa lerer

Well, honestly, I think it'southward some of all of that. When I talk to people who are close to Joe Biden, and I've at present talked to quite a lot of them, they say that this is something that'south just and then completely out of grapheme for him. They describe a man who's fiercely devoted to his married woman and his kids. That he would spend a lot of time focusing on when he could get the quickest train, the soonest train, home to Delaware so he could run across them. And they only cannot reconcile these allegations that are out with the guy that they have known for all these decades. So they say they tin't believe information technology'southward truthful. Merely when you look at the political calendar, we're in the spring of an ballot yr, Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee. So you accept to figure that many, many Democrats likewise just don't want this to be true.

[music]

michael barbaro

Lisa, thank you very much.

lisa lerer

Thanks for having me.

archived recording (bernie sanders)

So today, I am asking all Americans — I'thousand asking every Democrat, I'm asking every independent, I'yard request a lot of Republicans to come up together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse.

michael barbaro

On Mon, Joe Biden was endorsed by his former rival, Senator Bernie Sanders.

archived recording (joe biden)

Well, Bernie I desire to thank you for that. It's a big deal. I think that your endorsement means a not bad deal. Information technology ways a groovy deal to me.

michael barbaro

We'll exist right back.

Here'south what else you demand to know today.

archived recording (emmanuel macron)

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

michael barbaro

On Monday, France said information technology would extend a nationwide lockdown until the middle of May. U.k. was expected to extend its lockdown. And Russia's president offered his darkest cess yet of the virus'south touch there.

archived recording (vladimir putin)

[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]

michael barbaro

During a meeting with his advisors, Vladimir Putin said, quote, "We run across the situation changing daily. And unfortunately, non for the meliorate."

archived recording (andrew cuomo)

Thank you very much. Good afternoon to everyone. Let me welcome my boyfriend governors, who are on the telephone, who y'all'll hear from in a moment.

michael barbaro

In the U.S., two groups of governors — 1 on the east coast, the other on the westward coast — said they would determine regionally when and how to reopen their state'south economies, and emphasized that they would not do and then until experts and information showed that it would be safe.

archived recording (andrew cuomo)

Once more, we anticipate dissimilar facts, dissimilar circumstances for different states, different parts of states. But let's be smart and permit's exist cooperative. And let'due south learn from one another.

michael barbaro

During a conference call, the governors, including Tom Wolfe of Pennsylvania, said that it was their role, not the federal government'due south, to make that conclusion.

archived recording (tom wolfe)

Well, seeing equally how had the responsibility for endmost the country down, I think nosotros probably have the principal responsibility for opening it upward.

michael barbaro

A few hours later, President Trump was asked about the governor's announcement.

archived recording

Just to clarify your understanding of your authorisation, vis-à-vis governors, if a governor issued a stay at home —

archived recording (donald trump)

You say my dominance. The president'southward authority. Not mine, considering it'southward not me. This is — when somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way information technology's got to be.

michael barbaro

The president insisted that the conclusion was his.

archived recording

Your authority'southward total?

archived recording (donald trump)

It'southward total. It's total. And the governors know that.

archived recording

And so if a —

archived recording (donald trump)

The governors know that. You know, you lot have a couple of bands of — excuse me. Excuse me.

michael barbaro

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Kate Conger and Rachel Shorey contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html

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