The University of Delaware has possession of President Joe Biden’s Senate papers, which could possibly contain information regarding a sexual assault allegation made against him, but the university has no plans to make them public in the near future.
CNN obtained a statement from the university explaining it is curating the documents and because the process has not been completed the documents have not been made public.
“The University of Delaware received the Biden Senatorial Papers as a gift from Vice President Biden. We are currently curating the collection, a process that we estimate will carry at least into the spring of 2021,” a spokeswoman said in the statement.
She added, “As the curating process is not complete, the papers are not yet available to the public, and we are not able to identify what documents or files can be found within the collection.”
The allegation was made by Tara Reade, a former staffer while Biden was a senator, alleging he sexually assaulted her in 1993, as IJR previously reported.
Biden directly addressed the documents and the allegations made by Reade for the first time during an interview with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski on Friday morning.
He claimed the papers do not contain any personnel records.
In his statement released early Friday, Biden stated that his personnel files are not located at the University of Delaware but rather are at the National Archives.
“If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there,” he wrote in the statement.
Watch his comments below:
Joe Biden says his University of Delaware documents should not be revealed because he’s “running for public office” pic.twitter.com/GJgvpkq663
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 1, 2020
Brzezinski pressed Biden on the issue asking him if he is “certain” there is nothing about Tara Reade in those records.
“I am absolutely certain,” Biden said.
She asked Biden if he would be willing to approve a search of her name in the records.
“There is nothing. They’re not there… I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make,” Biden said.
He continued, “There are no personnel records by definition.”
Biden denied Reade’s allegations, “They aren’t true. This never happened.”
The former vice president also believes there are “inconsistencies” in Reade’s story.
Some have recently come out in support of Biden including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).