On Friday, as he forcefully denied an allegation of sexual assault made in opposition to him by a former Senate aide, Joseph R. Biden Jr. known as
On Friday, as he forcefully denied an allegation of sexual assault made in opposition to him by a former Senate aide, Joseph R. Biden Jr. known as on the Nationwide Archives to launch any criticism associated to the accusation.
However the Nationwide Archives instantly responded that any such personnel data wouldn’t be underneath its management however would relaxation with the Senate itself.
Then the Biden marketing campaign despatched a letter to the secretary of the Senate asking the workplace to “direct a search” for any related data, in the event that they existed, and make the outcomes of the search public.
On Monday, the secretary of the Senate mentioned that her workplace had no authorized discretion “to reveal any such data.” That prompted Mr. Biden’s private legal professional to reply to the Senate workplace asking, in impact, what his marketing campaign wanted to do to find any related paperwork and organize for his or her launch.
The exchanges have thrown into confusion Mr. Biden’s try to make public any paperwork associated to the allegation, a degree of transparency he promised when he appeared on MSNBC Friday to address the issue for the first time, saying unequivocally that the assault “never happened.” Even the Biden campaign itself appears uncertain of how to proceed.
At issue is an allegation by Tara Reade who says that Mr. Biden assaulted her in 1993 in a Senate hallway, pushing her up against a wall and penetrating her digitally. Ms. Reade worked as an aide in Mr. Biden’s Senate office in late 1992 and part of 1993.
She has told The New York Times that she filed a complaint with a congressional personnel office but she does not have a copy, and such paperwork has not been located. The complaint, she said, alleges harassment but not an assault.
In a statement released on Monday, the secretary of the Senate said, “Senate Legal Counsel advises that the Secretary has no discretion to disclose any such information as requested in Vice President Biden’s letter of May 1.” The statement cited, in part, “strict confidentiality requirements” of a law governing such records; it did not confirm that there was a complaint.
Shortly afterward, the Biden campaign said that Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden’s personal attorney, had responded on behalf of Mr. Biden with three questions pertaining to the release of a complaint that included clarifications on any circumstances that would allow the office to release information.
“Is just the existence of any such records subject to the same prohibition on disclosure?” he asked.
In an apparent reference to Ms. Reade, he also asked whether there was “anyone, such as a complainant, to whom such records, if they exist, could be lawfully disclosed?”
And he asked if the Senate could “release the procedures and related materials, including any standard forms or instructions, that the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices followed in 1993 for the intake and processing of any complaint of this kind?”
The office of the secretary of the Senate did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Bauer’s questions.