[13] She held positions and did volunteer work for county governmental agencies and for private nonprofits, performing duties in such areas as victims advocacy or animal rescue.

[28][30] Reade said after she had declined this assignment, she was admonished by Biden's office manager, Marianne Baker,[3] who told her to wear longer skirts and to button up more.

In April 2019, the Associated Press interviewed Reade about the allegations she was making at the time; finding that parts of her story contradicted other reports, and that her accusations could not be corroborated, the A.P.

[35] In a March 25, 2020, interview with Katie Halper, Reade alleged that Biden pushed her against a wall, kissed her, put his hand under her skirt, penetrated her with his fingers, and asked, "Do you want to go somewhere else?

"[14][36] Reade told National Public Radio (NPR) for an April 19 article, "His hands went underneath my clothing and he was touching me in my private areas and without my consent.

[37] Reade told The New York Times for an April 12 article that when she pulled away from Biden, he looked puzzled and said, "Come on, man, I heard you liked me."

[16] Reade told NPR she could not remember the exact place or date of the incident, stating it was likely a basement of a D.C. Senate office building in the spring of 1993.

[16] After failing to secure legal help, Reade wrote in a January 2020 post on Medium, "I have not told the whole story of what occurred between Joe Biden and myself.

[19][43] On April 12, 2020, a New York Times article reported interviews with Reade, several of her friends, lawyers, people who worked with Biden in the early 1990s, and seven women who accused him of kissing, hugging, or touching them in ways that had made them feel uncomfortable.

[44] The Associated Press reported in April that it spoke with two more people who said Reade had told them parts of her story years ago, publishing their accounts anonymously.

Backholm said at the time Reade went by the name Tara McCabe and said he realized he knew Biden's accuser only after recognizing her from the Megyn Kelly interview.

Dronen confirmed to The Tribune on May 7, 2020, that he had written the declaration and declined to comment any further on it, saying, "Tara and I ended our relationship over two decades ago under difficult circumstances.

ABC News also interviewed Moulton in March 2020; he told them that Reade had mentioned "'harassment at work' from Biden" but that "he only heard her account of the assault this spring".

[12] Later that day, Moulton texted ABC News to "clarify" that Reade had told him in 1993 that Biden had "more or less cornered her against a wall" and "put his hands up her clothes".

The same day, New York Times reporter Lisa Lerer said Reade had canceled a planned interview with Fox News, stating that "death threats received by her and her child made her nervous about being in the public eye".

[74] Wigdor, who is known for representing six women who alleged sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein and for being a prominent Donald Trump donor, stated that he was working pro bono; Moran is a former writer and editor for Russian news agency Sputnik.

[74] On May 11, Wigdor said that his firm had sent a letter to Biden to again ask for permission to search his archives and to the Senate Secretary's office to release a copy of the complaint Reade allegedly filed in 1993.

[18][78][79] Reade claimed to have obtained a bachelor's degree through a "protected program" for survivors of sexual assault,[3][4][80] and that she had been "fast-tracked" into the law school of Seattle University with the help of Antioch's then-president Tullise Murdock.

[85] Reade's credentials and the veracity of her testimony as an expert witness in domestic violence cases was challenged by several California attorneys against whose clients she had appeared.

[84][78][86] Subsequently Reade was investigated by prosecutors in Monterey County, California, for lying under oath about her educational credentials in her appearances as an expert witness on domestic abuse.

Reade has never recanted her accusations, speaking out in interviews after Biden's inauguration[89] and after the 2022 midterms, encouraging the new Republican U.S. House majority to investigate her claims.

[91] Additionally, Biden issued an official statement denying the allegation, and calling for the media to "examine and evaluate the full and growing record of inconsistencies in her story, which has changed repeatedly in both small and big ways".

[66] In his formal statement, Biden referenced the Violence Against Women Act he said he wrote "over 25 years ago", adding: I knew we had to change not only the law, but the culture.

The authors of the article, Daniel Bush and Lisa Desjardins, concluded from the interviews that "Biden was known as a demanding but fair and family-oriented boss, devoted to his home life in Delaware and committed to gender equality in his office", and that he was not one of the "creepy" male senators that female staffers told each other to avoid.

[20] NPR's Asma Khalid wrote, "Some details of Reade's account have been inconsistent, and her story has changed over time", noting that in 2019 she did not mention sexual assault.

[36] Laura McGann of Vox, who conducted multiple interviews of Reade and other relevant sources, stated, "The story that both she and her corroborating witnesses are telling has changed dramatically.

[95] In New York Magazine, political commentator Jonathan Chait stated that at first, he found Reade's claims believable, but that the findings reported by PBS, Laura McGann in Vox, and Natasha Korecki in Politico cast doubt on the veracity of the allegations.

[35] In Slate, Christina Cauterucci questioned Reade's choice of Megyn Kelly's unaffiliated "one-woman show", which is not required to abide by strict journalistic standards, for her first on air interview.

[72] Amanda Marcotte of Salon stated that, "The story of Reade's allegations against Biden shows what can happen when the rigorous standards espoused by mainstream publications are sidestepped for a more credulous and politicized approach.

The failure to vet this story methodically and to preemptively address its odder elements opened the door to a whirlwind of conspiracy theories and misinformation.