Biden accuser Tara Reade probed for lying about credentials to appear as domestic violence expert witness
Tara Reade, a former Senate aide to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden who has accused him of raping her way back in 1993, has herself come under scanner now. State prosecutors in California are probing the credentials that Reade attested to in several criminal cases, including an attempted murder case, where her testimony was suspected to be “critical”, Associated Press reported.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s office admitted it never tried to verify the credentials on the 56-year-old Reade’s resume before roping her in as a paid expert witness on issues related to domestic violence, the AP report added. Reade, who went by the name Alexandra Tara McCabe, made several claims on her resume and in court that have been questioned.
Tara Reade's education, career records being questioned
Reade’s educational qualifications have also been questioned. She said she got a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University but the latter denied it. She also said that she worked in former Delaware senator Biden’s office between 1991 and 1994 but Senate records showed that the actual time period was between December 1992 and August 1993. She also said that she served as an aide to Biden while he worked on the Violence Against Women Act but witnesses and records say she worked in a more junior role that included supervising interns or dealing with mails.
On Wednesday, May 27, Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon of Monterey County said: “We are investigating whether Ms. McCabe gave false testimony under oath.”
“At the time, we did not contact the schools she said she attended to see if they would disclose her records. We did not require that she provide proof of all the extensive professional training and experience listed on her CV (curriculum vitae),” he told AP in mail.
In December 2018, Reade told law that she gave expert testimony more than 20 times but a month later, she told the same judge and prosecutor that she thought the number was around 10. Brannon said it was not yet clear how often Reade appeared to give expert testimony. According to the AP report, defense attorneys could seek to have their clients’ convictions reversed in some or all the cases, dispensing on the other evidence. The statute of limitations for perjury in the Golden State is three years, they said.
“In the December 2018 case, Reade’s testimony helped send Jennifer Vasquez and Victoria Ramirez to prison for seven years to life in an arson and attempted murder case. The victim, a man, had been in a volatile relationship with Vasquez. He initially told police he saw two women running from the scene, but days later recanted, saying he had instead seen two men, defense lawyers said,” the report added. “She comes to court and says he’s probably lying (the second time) because it was a domestic violence situation,” Roland Soltesz, who represented Ramirez, was quoted as saying by AP. “When she started testifying, she immediately started talking about Joe Biden and the Violence Against Women Act. To me, that actually made her sound credible to the jury.”
Reade, who changed her name to Alexandra McCabe in the mid-1990s owing to personal issues, started using Reade later again. She has had stints with domestic violence organizations and animal rescue groups.
Reade accused Biden of raping her digitally in 1993
Reade accused Biden a few months ago of digitally raping and humiliating her in an empty place in Capitol Hill office in 1993. She criticized top Democratic leader Hillary Clinton for endorsing Biden and the mainstream media for not asking the former VP enough questions over the issue. Biden, on the other hand, broke his silence after a long time and denied the allegation.
Last week, as questions about Reade’s California court testimony emerged, Douglas Wigdor, who represented her, dropped her as a client. Philadelphia defense lawyer Alan Tauber, who has worked on exoneration cases earlier, said queries about an expert’s qualifications can be “enough to stain a case.” “The assumption is if you have an expert here, they’ve been vetted,” Tauber, now the city’s first assistant public defender, said, according to AP. “If you were to find one dishonest thing in her credentials, the entire house of cards falls.”