A woman who accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault has sued the Department of Justice for $10 million in part to "expose the truth" about the so-called weaponization of U.S. government.
Tara Reade, who served as a Biden aide when he was a U.S. senator representing Delaware, has repeatedly claimed that she was sexually assaulted by Biden in 1993. During his 2020 presidential campaign, she filed a criminal complaint with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, accusing him of pushing her against the wall in a Senate corridor and penetrating her with his fingers. Biden strongly denied the allegations by Reade, who last year was granted political asylum in the Russian Federation and still lives in Moscow.
In December, a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general was filed on her behalf, requesting an investigation into FBI practices that resulted in her First and Fourth Amendment rights being violated. The complaint never received a response, prompting this new tort lawsuit seeking damages for invasion of privacy, emotional distress and violation of state and federal constitutional rights.
"The FBI and DOJ has been weaponized by the Biden administration," Reade told Newsweek via phone on Wednesday. "Instead of trying to get to the truth, and instead of helping me when I went to the FBI, I had death threats.
"I went to them like any normal citizen would do for help because they're law enforcement, not knowing that they were actually running an operation against me. And so rather than just deal with rumors and innuendos, my lawyer has filed this because it will expose the truth about what they're doing."
Newsweek reached out to the DOJ via email for comment.
The suit obtained by Newsweek claims that Reade was investigated by the federal government as part of the Operation Cassandra during her years as a resident of California (2019-2021), Oregon (2021-2023) and Washington (2023) "in order to retaliate, intimidate, discredit and if possible, eliminate her as a threat to President Biden was investigated."
It also claims that FBI Director Christopher Wray "unlawfully and unconstitutionally ordered" the secret operation that violated privacy and surveillance statutes, as well as engaged in unconstitutional searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment, ultimately "forcing" Reade to seek asylum in Russia "in fear of her life."
Reade's attorney, Jonathan Levy, told Newsweek via phone on Wednesday that the DOJ has six months to respond to the lawsuit, as is routine procedure.
Levy, on Reade's behalf, seeks records in the custody of the FBI and DOJ, in addition to collateral records at X, formerly Twitter, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office, Antioch University, the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ and National Security Agency.
"What we were hoping best-case scenario with the Inspector General complaint was that they would take that seriously and do what we asked, which would be an internal investigation and turn her files over so we can start the process of expunging her files," Levy said. "That's optional, of course. It's not what happened, so now we're starting with the tort claim."
Between today and six months from now, Levy said he will continue demanding her records and may have to initiate a formal Freedom of Privacy Act request including any wiretaps and things seized on computers potentially in violation of her First Amendment rights.
"They should turn them over based on a reasonable demand without having to go through the Freedom of Privacy Act and possibly the court," he said. "I'm not sure we're gonna get any cooperation at this point."
Levy and Reade are in the process of starting their own international commission called Justice for All, described as a broader umbrella group operating outside the U.S. to work on behalf of whistleblower rights for others in similar situations.
Reade said she is speaking out and taking legal recourse because of others who are being silenced. She refers to the U.S. as "moving towards a fascist state," and the Democratic Party morphing into "totalitarianism."
"We're hoping in the next year we'll have so many people who could say they were a victim of weaponization [that] maybe there needs to be a 'truth and reconciliation' thing set up in the U.S. after the next election cycle," Levy said.
"Literally thousands of people in my estimation. This is a bigger deal, when we're looking in retrospect...than the [Joseph] McCarthy era."
Update 2/1/24, 3:12 p.m. ET: This story was updated to clarify that Reade was granted political asylum in Russia.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
