Former Vice President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from within his own party to respond to the allegations by former aide Tara Reade, who claims she was sexually assaulted by Biden when he was a senator.
But there’s another way to learn more about the explosive allegations threatening to upend the presidential race.
There are records from the time period in dispute that already exist – but close allies of the former vice president appear to be working overtime to ensure the public never sees them.
The University of Delaware has nearly 2,000 boxes of records and more than 415 gigabytes of data from Biden’s 36 years in the Senate.
They were donated by the vice president in 2012, and could’ve been released to the public as early as last year.
Instead, they’re being kept under lock and key – guarded by people who in some cases are actively working to help Biden win the presidency in November, a massive conflict of interest between the university and its duties to the public it serves.
Reade alleges that Biden made several unwanted and inappropriate advances, including an incident in which he penetrated her with his fingers. When she rejected his advances, she says he told her “you’re nothing to me.”
She claims her duties were reduced… then she was fired… and then she was unable to get a new job in Washington.
Given the timeline of the allegations and the clear impact it had on her employment, Biden’s records from the period could shed light on what happened behind the scenes.
Under its deal with Biden, the university could have made those records public two years after he left office… or January, 2019.
But it didn’t.
The Washington Post notes that hours before Biden announced he was running for president in April 2019, the university quietly tweaked the language regarding its Biden trove.
Instead of releasing them two years after he leaves “public office,” the website now says the records will be unsealed two years after he retires from “public life.”
And now, as questions are raised over why they’re working so hard to protect those files, the cozy ties between Biden and the university’s trustees are coming under closer scrutiny.
The National Review notes that multiple high-level officials at the university have links to both Biden and his campaigns.
Chairman John Cochran is a longtime donor to the former vice president who also purchased his home in 1996 for $1.2 million, which the magazine notes was “top dollar.”
Cochran at the time was vice chairman of MBNA. Biden, of course, was a senator – and as his reelection campaign got under way shortly afterward, a series of MBNA executives all contributed, the magazine noted.
Then, to cap off the conflicts, Cochran hired Hunter Biden to work at the firm.
The National Review also details financial ties between Biden and at least seven other board members, including one who has donated the legal maximum and another who has donated a combined $10,000 to the Biden campaign and related PACs.
This isn’t just a matter of giving the public more insight into the allegations by Reade.
They deserve to know about how and why he made decisions on some of the biggest issues of his 36-year Senate career, including Supreme Court nominations, foreign relations and other key legislation.
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told The Post the records would be a “great boon” for scholars
“There will be notes on Anita Hill, segregation, busing and on and on,” he said. “Just seeing what the incoming was into his office, and seeing copies of letters Biden wrote in response — it’ll be a rich trove.”
But that trove is being kept hidden, which begs the question: What are they working so hard to hide?
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”