A California district attorney has launched an investigation into whether Tara Reade, who has accused presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of Joe Biden of sexual assault, gave false testimony as an expert witness.
The Monterey County district attorney is examining the accuracy of testimony Reade provided as an expert witness in domestic violence cases for the office, Politico reported Tuesday. The investigation will also reportedly look into whether she lied about her credentials to qualify as an expert.
“We are investigating whether Ms. McCabe gave false testimony under oath,” Monterey County Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon told the The Hill in a statement. “I will not provide details about the investigation or provide updates until it is complete.”
Brannon told Politico it’s unknown how many cases in which Reade, who testified under the name Alexandra McCabe, provided expert testimony.
“We have no database or search engine to use to determine in how many cases she testified,” Brannon said, according to Politico. “However, that effort is ongoing.”
Defense attorneys have reportedly requested the district attorney’s office subpoena Reade’s academic records and decide whether her credentials used to testify as an expert witness are credible.
Patrick McKenna, the executive director of the Sixth District Appellate Program, told Politico his office is examining cases in which Reade testified to see if convictions could be challenged.
“If those things were not true, then she may not have qualified as an expert or had the defense attorneys known about these things, they could have asked her about these things in court. It would go directly toward her credibility,” he said.
Reade has accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she worked in his Senate office. The former vice president has denied her allegations.
Recent news reports have questioned whether Reade lied about completing her bachelor’s degree and taking the bar exam and if she amplified her duties in Biden’s office.
Reade claims to have received her bachelor’s degree from Antioch University in Seattle, but the university has said she only attended for three academic quarters and did not graduate. She also has said she had an arrangement in which she could receive the degree under a different name, which the university contradicts.
But Seattle University Law School confirmed Reade, as Alexandra McCabe, graduated from the school, although officials did not comment on whether she had an appropriate undergraduate degree.
Reade’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, announced Friday that he would no longer represent her, emphasizing that dropping her as a client did not reflect “whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted Ms. Reade.”