Tara Reade told her ex-husband that she was sexually harassed while working as an aide for Joe Biden in 1993, it was revealed in a newly-released court document on Thursday.
The document, a decades-old court filing obtained by The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California, was written by Theodore Dronen in 1996, when he and Reade were going through their divorce.
“On several occasions [Reade] related a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office,” the declaration states.
The former Senate aide told Dronen that she “eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position,” he wrote.
“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.”
The document shows that Reade shared her account in the years following the alleged incident, though it does not mention her more recent allegations of sexual assault against Biden.
Reade has claimed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee pinned her against a wall in 1993, reached under her skirt and assaulted her. The Biden campaign has strenuously denied the allegations.
A former neighbor of Reade’s came forward last week to say that Reade told her about the alleged attack in 1995 or 1996.
Reade has said that she filed a complaint with the congressional personnel office in 1993 that described her concerns about Biden. But she told the Associated Press that she did not use the words “sexual harassment” or “sexual assault” in the complaint.
Biden’s campaign called on the secretary of the Senate to release any such documents, but the office said this week that it couldn’t disclose that information or say whether the complaint existed, citing confidentiality requirements under the law.
News of the 1996 filing emerged as Reade, 56, gave an on-camera account of the alleged encounter in an interview with Megyn Kelly, and called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“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,” said Reade’s New York-based attorney Douglas Wigdor.
Biden’s press secretary told the paper the campaign is not commenting on the latest development at this time.