Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him in 1993, says she filed a complaint with a Capitol Hill personnel office at the time – not about the alleged sexual assault, but about uncomfortable interactions she says she experienced while working for Biden.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has denied Reade’s allegation, and has called on the Senate to locate and make the complaint public, if it exists.
“To the best of my understanding there has been no complaints made against me in any Senate career,” Biden said in an interview with MSNBC. “This is an open book. There is nothing to hide.”
The Secretary of the Senate, after consulting with legal counsel, has said it cannot confirm or deny the existence of a complaint or make one public.
Reade’s allegation has set off a host of questions about whether the complaint exists – and if it does, where it could be and who might have access to it. Here’s what we know about the alleged complaint:
What Reade has said about the complaint
Reade has told CNN that she filed a complaint with a personnel office on Capitol Hill in 1993 while she was working in Biden’s Senate office about interactions with Biden that allegedly made her feel uncomfortable. She said that the complaint addressed only the alleged sexual harassment, and not the alleged sexual assault.
Reade said she did not have a copy of the said complaint, and that she also was not sure what the name of the office where she filed it was.
Additionally, Reade has said she verbally complained to three supervisors at the time about the alleged sexual harassment. All three have told CNN and other media outlets that they never received such a verbal complaint from Reade, and were furthermore never aware of any sexual harassment complaints from anybody against Biden in the years that they worked with him.
What one of Tara Reade’s friends said about the complaint
Reade has told CNN that the people she told about the alleged assault at the time included a close friend. CNN interviewed the friend, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect her privacy.
According to the friend, Reade told her on multiple occasions while she was working in Biden’s Senate office about physical interactions with the then-senator that had made her feel uncomfortable. She said she encouraged Reade to raise the problem with her bosses. Reade told her she did several times but that “nothing changed,” according to the friend.
The friend said she encouraged Reade to fill out a complaint at a personnel office on Capitol Hill, and that she agreed to be listed as a contact on the complaint form. The friend said that after Reade filled out the report, Reade told her she had filled out the form “on paper, on a clipboard.” The friend said she never heard from anyone at a personnel office about Reade.
Filing a complaint on Capitol Hill in 1993
The office that handled complaints of the nature Reade would have filed in 1993 on Capitol Hill was the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices. The House had a similar office, known as the Office of Fair Employment Practices. Both offices were established in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
If an alleged violation was filed with the Senate’s office, a procedure would kick in that would have included a hearing by a “board of independent hearing officers.” The law also allows for review of any alleged violations by the Senate’s Select Committee on Ethics, according to the statute.
University of Delaware records remain under seal
Since Reade came forward with her assault allegation, there have been calls for records from Biden’s time in the Senate given to the University of Delaware to be released to the public.
But Biden said during an MSNBC interview that the records at the University of Delaware from his time in the Senate are his personal records and do not contain personnel files.
“They don’t contain any personnel files, they are public records, my speeches, my papers, my position papers, and if that document existed, it would be stored in the National Archives where documents from the office she claims to have filed her complaint with are stored,” Biden said during the interview.
The University of Delaware received a collection of papers, video and media from Biden’s more than three decades in the Senate in June of 2012. The collection includes 1,850 boxes of archival records, according to the university. The university plans to make the archival collection publicly available two years after Biden retires from public life, a common practice for these types of collections donated by former government officials.
When asked why Biden wouldn’t release the records donated to the university now, he said those records contain “speeches I’ve made, positions I’ve taken, interviews that I did” and if they became public during his presidential run, “they could be really taken out of context.”
The collection is still being curated by the school’s librarians. Documents and media in the collection are still being archived, and that process will likely continue into 2021, according to University of Delaware spokeswoman Andrea Boyle. Regardless of when the collection is complete, the records will remain closed to the public until two years after Biden retires from public life, she said.
The only person who could give permission for anyone at the school to release documents to anyone else would be through “express consent” from Biden, the university said in a statement.
No one on behalf of Biden or his campaign has visited the collection at the university since November 2019, according to the university. When anyone from Biden’s staff has visited the collection, they have been accompanied by members of the library’s Special Collections department, Boyle said. No documents have been added or removed during any of these visits, she added.
Stored in National Archives, under ‘control’ of the Senate
During his interview on MSNBC, Biden said all personnel records from his Senate office would be stored in the National Archives.
The National Archives said in a statement to CNN after Biden’s on-camera interview aired that “personnel complaints from 1993” are “under the control of the Senate.”
The Archives said all further inquiries about locating Reade’s alleged complaint should be directed to the Senate.
Biden asks Secretary of the Senate to release any documents related to Reade
Biden sent a letter to the Secretary of the Senate on Friday asking the office to “direct whatever steps are necessary” to locate and make public any complaint from Reade.
The Secretary of the Senate responded to Biden in a public statement, saying its office had “no discretion to disclose” those records because it is prohibited by federal law.
Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, responded to the Secretary of the Senate by asking a series of questions regarding the documents.
Bauer asked if the Secretary of the Senate could disclose even the existence of such a complaint. He also asked if anyone, like the person who made the complaint, is legally allowed to see copies of those records. Bauer additionally asked if the Senate could release “procedures and related materials” including “any standard forms or instructions” that the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices would have used in 1993.
The secretary’s office responded by saying that releasing the records to anyone would be a “prohibited disclosure” under the law and that even disclosing the existence of any complaint is prohibited.
The office also provided Bauer with a document detailing the procedures for the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices in 1993.
