Questions around Tara Reade‘s education background have prompted the Monterey County District Attorney’s office to open an investigation into whether Reade lied under oath while serving as an expert witness.

Reade, who formerly used the name Alexandra McCabe, testified in several cases as a domestic violence expert.

“We are investigating whether Ms. McCabe gave false testimony under oath,” Monterey County Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon told Politico. “We have no database or search engine to use to determine in how many cases she testified. However, that effort is ongoing.”

Recent reports have highlighted concern that Reade, the former Senate aide accusing Joe Biden of sexual assault, lied about her undergraduate degree from Antioch University in Seattle, prompting her lawyer to quit representing her.

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Reade told CNN on Monday that she received a Bachelor of Arts degree through a “protected program,” and served as a visiting professor on and off for five years.

Antioch University confirmed to Politico that she only attended for three academic quarters and did not graduate. A spokesperson also told CNN that no such program allowing students to earn their degree under a different name ever existed. The spokesperson also denied Reade’s claim that she was a visiting professor, but noted she had done some administrative work for the school.

However, she did graduate from law school, Seattle University Law School confirmed.

Defense lawyers working on cases that Reade testified in are calling for the Monterey prosecutor’s office to subpoena her academic records, as she stated multiple times while under oath that she had obtained a degree from Antioch University.

She also testified in December 2018 that “I have not taken the bar exam,” but in an archived blog post from 2012, she wrote: “taking the California bar exam a third time … hoping I can charm it and pass!”

Roland Soltesz, a defense lawyer who questioned Reade in an attempted murder trial, said that false testimony would undermine Reade’s expert witness status.

“She testified under oath that she never took the bar exam. She’s got a personal blog out there saying she failed the bar twice. Maybe she made that up,” Soltesz said. “She didn’t want to tell the truth that she didn’t pass the bar because that would diminish her credibility as an expert.”

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