Exclusive: 1996 court document confirms Tara Reade told of harassment in Biden's office A court document from 1996 shows former Senate staffer Tara Reade told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working for Joe Biden in 1993. The declaration — exclusively obtained by The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California — does not say Biden committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade’s more recent allegations of sexual assault. Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen wrote the court declaration. Dronen at the time was contesting a restraining order Reade filed against him days after he filed for divorce, Superior Court records show. In it, he writes Reade told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.” It appears to be the only written record that has surfaced from the time that substantiates Reade shared her account in the years following the alleged incident, though a former neighbor came forward last week about similar conversations she said she had with Reade in 1995. In the filing dated March 25, 1996, Dronen testified that he met Reade in the spring of 1993 while the two worked for separate members of Congress in Washington, D.C. Dronen wrote that Reade told him 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 (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected (sic) by it today,” Dronen wrote. Dronen filed the record in response to a similar declaration written by Reade in support of her restraining order request, in which Reade described incidents of abuse throughout her life. In interviews with The Tribune and other media, Reade has identified herself as a domestic violence survivor and victim’s advocate. Asked for comment Thursday, the national press secretary for Biden’s presidential campaign, T.J. Ducklo, said the campaign is not commenting on the latest development at this time. However, the campaign did provide a comment from Ted Kaufman, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time. “I have consistently said what is the truth here — that she never came to me,” Kaufman said. “I do not remember her, and had she come to me in any of these circumstances, I would remember her. But I do not, because she did not.” Reade’s New York-based attorney, Douglas Wigdor, also provided a statement to The Tribune on Thursday: “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,” Wigdor wrote in an email. “Ms. Reade’s account of what happened will shortly be aired in an interview by Megyn Kelly and I am confident that the American public will see her genuine veracity.” Reade told The Tribune in a phone interview on May 1, when asked what she would like to say to her former boss. “He holds himself up as a champion of women, but the fact remains that his personal life did not reflect his public life. https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/article242527331.html