The attorney for Tara Reade, the former Senate aide who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault, has dropped her as a client.
Doug Wigdor, who made a name for himself as the attorney who represented accusers of both Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly, did not give a specific reason for dropping Reade as a client but emphasized it “is by no means a reflection on whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted Ms. Reade.”
“On that point, our view — which is the same view held by the majority of Americans, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll — has not changed,” Wigdor said in a statement sent to reporters, referring to a poll that showed most voters believe Reade’s allegations.
In the statement, Wigdor said Reade has been subject to a “double standard” by the media, a point progressive critics of Biden and Republicans alike have made.
The New York Times and other media outlets have exhaustively investigated Reade’s claims, which some have pointed out was not the case for Christine Blassey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
“We also believe that to a large extent Ms. Reade has been subjected to a double standard in terms of the media coverage she has received,” he said. “Much of what has been written about Ms. Reade is not probative of whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted her, but rather is intended to victim-shame and attack her credibility on unrelated and irrelevant matters.”
Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has denied Reade’s allegation that he assaulted her in a corridor on Capitol Hill in 1993.
“We genuinely wish Ms. Reade well and hope that she, as a survivor, is treated fairly,” Wigdor said. “We have and will continue to represent survivors regardless of their alleged predator’s status or politics.”
Reade says she filed a complaint with the Senate’s human resources department alleging sexual harassment against Biden at the time. That claim, however, has not yet been found.
Biden has unsuccessfully tried to obtain a copy of the complaint from the National Archives and has also asked the secretary of the Senate for a copy of the complaint. The former vice president, however, has not searched his own Senate records housed at the University of Delaware, which he has said wouldn’t render any personnel files.