The tenfold increase in her damage claim follows the confirmation of Kash Patel as the new FBI director
Tara Reade, a former congressional staffer who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, has amended her tort complaint against US agencies and officials following last week’s appointment of Kash Patel as FBI director.
Reade’s complaint stems from her time working with Biden in the 1990s, when he was a US senator for Delaware. Originally filed last year, the complaint alleges that after Reade publicly voiced her accusations against Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign, she became the target of a concerted effort to discredit her. This purported campaign involved the “weaponization” of government entities, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, for which Reade initially sought $10 million in damages. The updated filing now claims ten times that amount.
Reade’s attorney, Jonathan Levy, told Newsweek that they waited for Patel’s confirmation before revising the claim, noting that the increase was partially influenced by E. Jean Carroll’s recent lawsuit victory against Donald Trump. In May 2023, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. In January 2024, this total rose to $83.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Reade asserts that in 1993, Biden assaulted her inside the Senate by penetrating her with his fingers without consent. Biden has denied the allegations, while media outlets supporting his candidacy labeled the claims as not credible.
In 2023, citing safety concerns, Reade relocated to Russia, where she now contributes to RT. According to Levy, the case “strikes right at the heart of both the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI and the Russia collusion hoax. Tara Reade was immediately attacked by the FBI as a Russian disinformation asset in 2019, the same game plan used for the Hunter Biden laptop.”
That case involved a laptop left by Joe Biden’s son at a repair shop, which contained extensive personal and business records, some suggesting he had engaged in influence peddling. The Biden campaign vigorously rebutted the allegations, orchestrating a letter from dozens of former intelligence officials, which dismissed the story as bearing “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Throughout Biden’s presidency, Trump denounced various civilian lawsuits and criminal investigations against him as politically motivated “weaponization” of the government by the Democratic administration.
