Patterico's Pontifications

5/8/2020

Court Document Confirms Tara Reade Told Husband About Harassment In Biden’s Office

Filed under: General — Dana @ 11:55 am



[guest post by Dana]

There have been a few interesting things that have come up involving Tara Reade’s allegations about Joe Biden. (See previous posts here and here.)

First, reporter Laura McGann, who began interviewing Tara Reade about her allegations against Joe Biden a year ago, documents in detail her involvement with Reade, including interviews and conversations surrounding her claims. McGann became concerned by the inconsistencies in Reade’s story. A concern shared by our host, as well as many of us here. The slow-trickle of added details not included in her former neighbor’s account, her brother’s account, and even in Reade’s original account, makes for a different story than the original story told by Reade. All of which has left McGann, a reporter digging for the complete story, mired in the miasma of uncertainty:

If Reade had told a consistent story and shared all of her corroborating sources with reporters, if those sources had told a consistent story, if the Union piece had shaken loose other cases like hers, or if there were “smoking gun” evidence in Biden’s papers, her account might have been reported on differently in mainstream media a year ago. It is not fair to an individual survivor that their claims require an extraordinary level of confirmation, but it’s what reporters have found is necessary for their stories to hold up to public scrutiny and successfully hold powerful men accountable. So we are here.

[Ed. Biden is refusing to open his senatorial archives for a search of Reade’s complaint.]

While many view Reade’s inconsistencies as problematic, she doesn’t see it that way:

“My story never changed. I just didn’t come forward with all the details. It’s really simple,” she said to me. “I held back this story because I was afraid of a powerful man.”

It’s safe to say that most women who find themselves in a situation where their abuser is a powerful, well–connected man, might react in a similar manner. There is nothing unreasonable about fearing retaliation from a powerful public figure who has the resources to ruin one’s life.

Yesterday, it was reported that a court document confirmed that Tara Reade had told yet another individual about being sexually harassed in Joe Biden’s office in 1993. This is a statement from Reade’s ex-husband Theodore Dronen in a document filed in 1996:

On several occasions Petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office. Petitioner told me that 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 Petitioner, and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today.

It’s notable that this took place during a contentious divorce proceeding between Dronen and Reade, when she had filed a restraining order against Dronen after he filed for a divorce from her.

Finally, Reade, who has had no legal representation until this week, sat down for an interview with Megyn Kelly. If you recall, Reade reportedly backed out of an interview with Chris Wallace last weekend, citing security concerns. I’m not sure what has changed between now and then with regard to the alleged concerns, but Reade nonetheless met with Megyn Kelly in Northern California. What’s significant in this portion of the interview, is that Reade publicly says that she is willing to testify under oath, be cross-examined, and if Joe Biden took a polygraph test (which she thinks he should), she would take one too. Oh, and Reade also believes that Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race:

It’s unclear when or where the full interview will appear.

*This is how the AP opened their report about Reade obtaining legal representation (linked above):

Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who alleged Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, is being represented by a prominent lawyer and political donor to President Donald Trump’s 2016 Republican campaign.

It isn’t until the eighth paragraph into the report that we find this:

Wigdor is well known for his work on prominent cases related to sexual harassment and assault. He represented six women who accused Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, of sexual misconduct. He has also represented a number of Fox News employees in cases alleging gender and racial discrimination at the network, including Juliette Huddy, one of the women who accused Bill O’Reilly of pursuing a sexual relationship with her and retaliating when she refused. In 2018, he spoke out in the media defending Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

–Dana

34 Responses to “Court Document Confirms Tara Reade Told Husband About Harassment In Biden’s Office”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (0feb77)

  2. At a minimum, it should be possible to find a copy of the complaint that Ms. Reade claims to have submitted before moving forward. This is the only facet of the claims on either side that can be objectively proven or disproven.

    John B Boddie (f7954e)

  3. Mr Boddie wrote:

    At a minimum, it should be possible to find a copy of the complaint that Ms. Reade claims to have submitted before moving forward. This is the only facet of the claims on either side that can be objectively proven or disproven.

    Your statement assumes that paperwork which went through Senator Biden’s office was properly filed, and that no one would have ever thought to destroy it, remove it, or otherwise keep it from ever being released.

    We now have not one, but two pieces of contemporaneous evidence in support of Miss Reade’s claims: the call to Larry King in 1993, and now a court document, filed by an attorney — and officer of the court — in 1996, long before there was any hint that Miss Reade was going to make a public accusation against Mr Biden. There is far more contemporaneous evidence to support Miss Reade’s claims than there ever was supporting Christine Ford, evidence that the Democrats claimed was more than sufficient to block Brett Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.

    At some point, the credentialed media won’t be able to keep this quiet anymore; might be a good thing if they can keep a lid on it until early October? 🙂

    But, if the media don’t manage to ignore this to death, Mr Biden is toast. Not just regular toast, but burned toast, which fell on the floor, buttered side down.

    The Dana in Kentucky (408392)

  4. Never trumpers here are riding the titanic down with groper joe biden. All women must be believed unless accusing a biden or a clinton.

    asset (d0a7ee)

  5. This makes it ever more clear that something happened. It doesn’t add clarity on exactly what that was.

    But regardless, the top 2 candidates are a man that’s credible accused of harassment and a man that’s openly bragged about sexual assault. 350,000,000 people. We should be able to do better.

    Maybe this will bring a more modulated approach to future accusations.

    Time123 (daab2f)

  6. There is far more contemporaneous evidence to support Miss Reade’s claims than there ever was supporting Christine Ford,

    Actually there is not any. Those two bits of evidence only show that Ms Reade complained to her mother and then husband that some unspecified individual subjected her to sexual harrassment. They don’t identify Biden or anyone else as the culprit, and they can be for any behavior, including the phalangeal assault which she now alleges (but didn’t allege last year), but not limited to that.

    Is her mother still alive? Is Mr. Dronen? They are the obvious people to be interviewed now, as to what they were told then.

    Kishnevi (c2a547)

  7. Tara Reade’s mother died in 2016, kishnevi.

    Mr. Dronen is alive, and confirmed that he wrote the declaration, but has no interest in making any comments on the situation at hand:

    “Tara and I ended our relationship over two decades ago under difficult circumstances,” Dronen said in an email to The Tribune on Thursday. “I am not interested in reliving that chapter of my life. I wish Tara well, and I have nothing further to say.”

    Dana (0feb77)

  8. Thank you, Dana. Mr. Dronen’s statement is the sort of thing that folks can say implies whatever they want it to say.

    Kishnevi (c2a547)

  9. I would like to hear someone argue in favor of these two men being the best the United States can produce for its leader.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  10. Maybe the job doesn’t pay enough. We should raise the pay to $20 million a year, $50 million in the second term.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  11. 3. The Dana in Kentucky (408392) — 5/8/2020 @ 12:54 pm

    We now have not one, but two pieces of contemporaneous evidence in support of Miss Reade’s claims: the call to Larry King in 1993,

    That does NOT support her claims.

    Quite the opposite.

    From the part of the call that is widely available, it is clear that the problem did not concern anything Senator Biden did himself.

    Her mother indicates that her daughter was not able to get [Senator Biden’s] attention, and her question to Larry King was: Was there any way to do so without going public, which her daughter didn’t want to do out of respect to Senator Biden.

    I will boldface some words I want to call attention to, and also insert some clarification in brackets.

    https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/new-evidence-tara-reade-joe-biden

    KING: San Luis Obispo, California, hello.

    CALLER: Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through [to him?] with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done [to get his attention] was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.

    KING: In other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?

    CALLER: That’s true.

    King’s panel of guests offered no suggestions, and instead the conversation veered into a discussion of whether any of the men on set would leak damaging personal information about a rival to the press.

    (Note: It is possible that Larry King and his guests misunderstood who the supposed offender was. But it was definitely not her top boss.)

    BTW, Alexandra Tara Reade did not describe what her mother said correctly.

    and now a court document, filed by an attorney — and officer of the court — in 1996, long before there was any hint that Miss Reade was going to make a public accusation against Mr Biden.

    Which also does not say that the offender was Joe Biden.

    On several occasions Petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office. Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position…

    In his office. Not by Senator Biden. Struck adeal, and [then] left the office.

    Here also we also have the claim of a deal. and there’s a contradiction between what her mother said and what her husband said.

    Her mother doesn’t say there was a deal, so if there was a deal, it probably would have happened after August 11, 1993, which is after she left the office; but her husband says the deal was negotiated with Senator Biden’s Chief of staff and was made before she left the office.

    A glaring contradiction.

    And besides, no evidence has emerged of any deal. No money that changed hands; she didn’t get a better job. What was the deal?

    Sammy Finkelman (375edc)


  12. HuffPost Politics
    @HuffPostPol

    JUST IN: Every voter in California will be asked to vote by mail in November due to concerns over the coronavirus.

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5eb5b6a3c5b6af6a5eb465e1?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016&section=politics
    _

    harkin (8f4a6f)

  13. Never trumpers here are riding the titanic down with groper joe biden. All women must be believed unless accusing a biden or a clinton.

    Hogwash. I generally believed the women who accused Bill Clinton, because there was a pattern. It wasn’t just one. And commenters here who have expressed skepticism about Reade have generally NOT dismissed her charge out of hand just to defend Biden.

    But some of us wonder why the always trumpers who are so thrilled by Reade’s accusation can’t bring themselves to believe any of the many women who have complained about Donald Trump’s behavior toward them. The numerous complaints show a pattern, and it’s consistent with things Trump has said openly.

    There is nothing unreasonable about fearing retaliation from a powerful public figure who has the resources to ruin one’s life.

    Another thing we know about Trump is his vindictiveness toward anyone who in any way hurts his ego or image, or denies him what he wants. Yet the always trumpers who can readily apply the statement above to Biden (or Clinton) will keep telling themselves that it doesn’t apply to Trump.

    What is consistent about always trumpers is that they will never judge Trump by the same standard they apply to others, or by any standard external to Trump himself.

    Radegunda (39c35f)

  14. So now we have not “he said, she said” but “they said, and they said”.

    A few people associated with Senator Biden said (everybody denies any knowledge of any complaint or any deal) and a few people allegedly said Tara Reade said, and they say different things..

    You have to be believe in a conspiracy. Either a conspiracy by Joe Biden to cover up something he did to her, or a conspiracy, (possibly orchestrated by Vladimir Putin along with some Americans) to frame Joe Biden. (I don;t think Putin was against Brett Kavanaugh so you don’t really need to bring in Putin, except for Alexandra Tara Reade fawning over him in 2018, while still calling herself a liberal Democrat, and the breaking of some news in The Intercept)

    Now we know that, or should know, that Joe Biden lied about getting Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired, and about getting arrested in South Africa in 1977 because he tried to visit Nelso Mandela and about Nelson Mandela later thanking him, but in none of the lies that Joe Biden has ever told, has anyone else backed up his lies. </b They've tried to obscure it or come up with explanation for why he said what he said, and gotten Joe Biden to stop repeating them, but I think nobody's ever backed up his lies.

    Here you would need possibly up to half a dozen people to lie about her cutting a deal, or if not asked, conceal the deal..

    While on the other side, we have several instances of people making up claims of sexual harassment or sexual attack, and finding some people to back her up, sort of – either family members, or random acquaintances.

    Sammy Finkelman (375edc)

  15. Trump loves to retaliate:

    A federal watchdog said it has found “reasonable grounds” to believe that the administration retaliated against a top public health official who says he was ousted after raising alarms about an unverified coronavirus treatment, his attorneys said Friday.

    Trump has saifd time and time again that he always finds a way to get even.

    DRJ (15874d)

  16. I would like to hear Biden’s response to Reade’s willingness to take a polygraph if he does. Of course he won’t, but it will be yet another instance where those convinced of Reade’s accuracy will use to bolster her case.

    Dana (0feb77)

  17. Also, she could easily be full of beans, but I think she makes a good impression in the interview. Calm, direct, not visibly angry or scrambling for an answer.

    Dana (0feb77)

  18. Maybe the job doesn’t pay enough. We should raise the pay to $20 million a year, $50 million in the second term.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 5/8/2020 @ 1:50 pm

    This is a pretty good idea.

    Dustin (e5f6c3)

  19. 5, Time123 (daab2f) — 5/8/2020 @ 1:13 pm

    his makes it ever more clear that something happened.

    either that something happened, or that she’s a pathological liar, whose lies get more specific and bigger and bigger with time.

    Sammy Finkelman (375edc)

  20. Trump nursed a vindictive rage against a British journalist, Selina Scott, for many years. He wanted to destroy her. One reason was that he failed to seduce her. Another was that he thought she was interviewing him for a flattering profile, when she was actually doing fact-based journalism.

    I’ve read that Trump was able to intimidate business publications into avoiding stories that put a light on his failings or showed that he was not as wealthy as he claimed.

    Trump is also famous for his extremely strict NDAs, and he has boasted about that practice.

    Add to that the MAGAhead cultists who lash out viciously against critics of Trump.

    And Trump has the power of the presidency.

    The Trump faithful will still never believe the women who have accused him most publicly, and will never grant even the possibility that there are many others who are afraid to go public, though some have told their story anonymously.

    Can’t be true. Trump can only ever be the victim of the “haters” or the “Deep State.”

    Radegunda (39c35f)

  21. I hope this all gets sorted out between Reade and Biden.

    Popcorn on…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  22. This puts it more in the Something rather than nothing happened somewhere column, but the ex, too, said in by someone in Biden’s office, rather than Biden. And if she is telling us what she told her ex, why wouldn’t he just come out and confirm it?

    I think they need to look in the records, both Biden’s and the Senate HR ones. If they are worried about other confidential things coming out, well, they have teams that work in those situations.

    Nic (896fdf)

  23. Sammy: You could interpret the mother’s call to mean that Tara could not get it through Joe’s stupid brain that she didn’t want him to grope her, not that she wasn’t able to navigate the office staff wickets to get to talk to him.

    kaf (6cbb44)

  24. Breaking-
    AP Exclusive: Top White House officials buried CDC report

    The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press.
    ……..
    White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Friday that the documents had not been approved by CDC Director Robert Redfield. The new emails, however, show that Redfield cleared the guidance.
    ……
    As early as April 10, Redfield, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, shared via email the guidance and decision trees with President Donald Trump’s inner circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, top adviser Kellyanne Conway and Joseph Grogan, assistant to the president for domestic policy. Also included were Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other task force members.

    Three days later, CDC’s upper management sent the more than 60-page report with attached flow charts to the White House Office of Management and Budget, a step usually taken only when agencies are seeking final White House approval for documents they have already cleared.

    The 17-page version later released by The AP and other news outlets was only part of the actual document submitted by the CDC…….
    ……
    According to the documents, CDC continued inquiring for days about the guidance that officials had hoped to post by Friday, May 1, the day Trump had targeted for reopening some businesses, according to a source who was granted anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the press.

    On April 30 the CDC’s documents were killed for good.
    ……

    Ripmurdock (2f4209)

  25. The Trump faithful will still never believe the women who have accused him most publicly, and will never grant even the possibility that there are many others who are afraid to go public, though some have told their story anonymously.

    This is true. Why people are willing to relinquish their integrity and common sense for someone as corrupt as Trump, is beyond me. Interestingly, just as the Trumpers are pointing a finger of hypocrisy Democrats for supporting Biden, in spite of the allegations, they will never dump Trump in spite of the numerous allegations against him. It’s funny when people only see one side of the hypocrisy coin.

    Dana (0feb77)

  26. You have to be believe in a conspiracy. Either a conspiracy by Joe Biden to cover up something he did to her, or a conspiracy, (possibly orchestrated by Vladimir Putin along with some Americans) to frame Joe Biden. (I don;t think Putin was against Brett Kavanaugh so you don’t really need to bring in Putin, except for Alexandra Tara Reade fawning over him in 2018, while still calling herself a liberal Democrat, and the breaking of some news in The Intercept)

    I suppose if you were in full tin hat mode you could suggest that Brett Kavanaugh was a trial run for the Putin black ops team, and they have applied the lessons they learned to this attempt. To wit: make sure that the accusers are of the same party as the accused, not a different party as in Christine Blasey Ford; make sure that you have cultivated other sources who will claim near-contemporaneous corroboration of her allegations; and trust that the media’s initial reluctance to cover this story will give the accused ample opportunity to make it seem as if they are trying to bury it.

    Or you can assume that Ms. Reade’s story is substantially true, if perhaps not in its most sordid details, which is where I now find myself.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  27. I think she’s a disappointed old shrew unable to even hold on to a husband who after 27 years of rehearsal and rewrites of the script finally took her show on the road for her last grab at the brass ring.

    nk (1d9030)

  28. It’s funny when people only see one side of the hypocrisy coin.

    One of the quainter Trumpist all-purpose defenses is: “We knew we were voting for a flawed man!” And supposedly it follows that everyone else is obligated to disregard his flaws. But it does not follow, in the Trumpist mind, that the other party has an excuse to nominate a flawed man.

    The is a mirror image of a tactic that conservatives have complained about when Dems have used it. If a conservative criticized the moral sleaziness of a Dem, some Dems would reply: “But our guys aren’t pretending to be choirboys, but your guys are, so you’re hypocrites and we’re not!” And the conservatives would protest that it’s really not better to have no standards at all.

    Now, many of those same “conservatives” are saying “You can’t call us hypocrites, because we understand [now] that God uses sinners.” And then they act all morally offended that the other side has sinners too.

    Radegunda (39c35f)

  29. Or you can assume that Ms. Reade’s story is substantially true, if perhaps not in its most sordid details, which is where I now find myself.

    I don’t.
    There’s a significant difference between her story last year and her story now. There are reasons that would excuse her saying nothing 27 years ago. But 2019 and 2020 are not the 1990s, and last year, when Biden was not the shoo-in for the nomination, when there were several female candidates who could be assumed to be sympathetic to her story, when the AOC wing was in full heat behind Bernie, was actually a more favorable point for her to tell her story. She didn’t.

    Kishnevi (c7baf0)

  30. Democrats in some cases are saying we don’t care if biden is a pedophile or a rapist we have to defeat trump! I voted third party not trump so I don’t have to defend his behavior. This is the best we can do two old white perverts?

    asset (3ae4ce)

  31. This is true. Why people are willing to relinquish their integrity and common sense for someone as corrupt as Trump, is beyond me. Interestingly, just as the Trumpers are pointing a finger of hypocrisy Democrats for supporting Biden, in spite of the allegations, they will never dump Trump in spite of the numerous allegations against him. It’s funny when people only see one side of the hypocrisy coin.

    Dana (0feb77) — 5/8/2020 @ 4:23 pm

    Or it could be that people were tired of the double standard and weren’t going to let their candidate be torn down after he won the nomination by a leftist party that would never follow that same standard. As we see proven yet again.

    If the left truly cared about Trump’s actions with women, they would’ve come out with everything while there were 17 other Republicans running for president. Instead, they waited till it was only him and tried to destroy him with it.

    NJRob (4d595c)

  32. Gosh said senator made it a point to criminalize said encounters with the vawa , just like he was the author of the drug czar authorization, irony follows.

    Narciso (7404b5)

  33. people were tired of the double standard

    and therefore they hastened to abandon any pretense of actually caring about the standards they used to preach, and tried to outdo the other side in double-standardism.

    Radegunda (39c35f)

  34. @26 The problem is that it is the sordid details that make the story. If she’d come out and said, frex, Biden groped her butt one time 27 years ago it would have gone away. It’s the fingers up inside her that is carrying the story.

    Nic (896fdf)


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