Tara Reade, the former Senate aide who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, no longer has legal representation. On Friday, lawyer Douglas Wigdor, who took Reade on as a client just two weeks ago, said Friday that he is not representing her. Wigdor, who has represented women who have testified against Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly as one of the leading lawyers in the #MeToo era, said in a statement to The Daily Beast that the decision 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. “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. 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. We genuinely wish Ms. Reade well and hope that she, as a survivor, is treated fairly. We have and will continue to represent survivors regardless of their alleged predator’s status or politics.” Wigdor has drawn scrutiny as he has been a donor and supporter of Biden rival Donald Trump.
The decision comes one day after defense lawyers in California said they were reviewing criminal cases in which Reade served as an expert witness on domestic violence, stating they are concerned she misrepresented her education credentials, after a CNN report indicated she may have falsified them. Reade alleges that Biden assaulted her in the Senate complex in 1993, a claim the Democratic presidential candidate has denied.
Read it at The New York Times
