Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault, said Tuesday she had moved to Moscow and was seeking to become a citizen, according to Russian state media.
Reade, who worked in Biden’s Senate office in 1993 for a short period, made the comments to Sputnik during a news conference, saying that although her decision was “very difficult,” she now felt “very surrounded by protection and safety.”
“My dream is to live in both places, but it may be that I only live in this place, and that’s OK,” she said. Reade was seated next to Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent who was jailed in the U.S. in 2018.
Butina now serves in Russia’s parliament.
Reade first accused Biden in 2019 of inappropriately touching her while working in his Capitol Hill office nearly 30 years ago, in 1993. In 2020, as he ran for president, she accused him of sexual assaulting her when she worked in his Senate office.
Biden has rejected the allegations.
The New York Times spoke to former Biden staffers who had worked with Reade at the time, but none could corroborate the details of her claims or recount similar behavior. She was also dropped by a high-profile lawyer amid questions about her credibility.
Reade said Tuesday she was still in a “daze” after her move but said she had grown fearful in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
“I am enjoying my time in Moscow, and I feel very at home,” she said.
Reade has shared pro-Russian views on social media in recent years and expressed frustration that Russian state media had been censored in the U.S. Semafor also reported that Russian diplomats attempted to bring her to the United Nations last year to speak before the Security Council. The request was rejected.