Biden Asks Senate Secretary to Look for Records of Tara Reade Complaint

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski on May 1, 2020. (MSNBC's Morning Joe via AP)

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden officially asked the secretary of the U.S. Senate to search for a complaint allegedly filed by a woman who worked for Biden in 1993.

Tara Reade, 56, says she filed a complaint with a Senate office after Biden, 77, a senator at the time, sexually assaulted her at the U.S. Capitol.

“I am writing to request your assistance in determining whether 27 years ago a staff member in my United States Senate office filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment,” Biden wrote to Julie Adams, the secretary.

Biden said Friday morning that he'd ask Adams to inquire with the National Archives about the complaint in question.

The National Archives told The Epoch Times in a statement, “Any records of Senate personnel complaints from 1993 would have remained under the control of the Senate.”

Biden noted the National Archives statement in his letter to Andrews.

“Accordingly, I request that you take or direct whatever steps are necessary to establish the location of the records of this Office, and once they have been located, to direct a search for the alleged complaint and to make public the results of the search,” Biden wrote.

The public release should also include “any and all other documents” that relate to the allegation, he added.

A spokeswoman for Adam’s office told The Epoch Times that legal counsel determined “the Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested in Vice President Biden’s letter of May 1.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) holds a press conference after a pro forma session where the Senate passed a nearly $500 billion package to further aid small businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 21, 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Adams was elected to her position in 2015. She previously served on the staff of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and as spokeswoman for First Lady Laura Bush.

Reade said last year that Biden sexually harassed her, elevating the accusation to sexual assault in March, then filing a police report with District of Columbia police.

Biden has also been accused of inappropriately touching other women, including Lucy Flores, a former member of the Nevada State Assembly, and former congressional aide Amy Lappos.

While Biden is seeking records relating to Reade from the Senate, he refused to ask for the release of a large set of records relating to his time in the Senate. Biden represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009 before becoming vice president.

“Look, there’s one place that she could file the complaint and ... all those records from that office are in the archives and they’re controlled by the Senate. That’s where personnel documents would be if they exist. That’s where the complaint would be if it exists,” Biden said during a televised interview Friday.

The University of Delaware acquired the records, which include more than 1,850 boxes and extensive electronic data.

Biden repeatedly said a narrow search for only records relating to Reade shouldn’t happen.

The university originally planned to release the records two years after Biden’s last day in public office but in April 2019, just before Biden announced a bid for the presidency, it said the documents won’t be released until the later date of Dec. 31, 2019, or two years after the donor retires from public life.

Andrea Boyle Tippett, a spokeswoman for the college, told The Epoch Times in an email that researchers are currently curating the collection.

“As the curating process is not complete, the papers are not yet available to the public,” she said.