Court Panel Clears Sen. Biden of University Plagiarism Charge

WILMINGTON, Del. —  Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) has been cleared of the college plagiarism charge that helped to lead to his departure from the 1988 presidential race, the Wilmington News Journal reported Sunday.

At Biden’s request, the Delaware Supreme Court reviewed the allegation in 1987. The court’s Board of Professional Responsibility exonerated the senator Dec. 21, 1987, said L. Susan Faw, independent disciplinary counsel for the panel, which prosecutes allegations of unethical behavior against attorneys.

Faw said she had recommended to the court’s Preliminary Review Committee, a panel of lawyers and non-lawyers with authority to recommend prosecution, that the matter be dismissed. The charge was later dismissed.

“I guess I had it in the back of my mind that this was more of a personal vindication than a political one,” Biden said about his decision to delay announcing the dismissal.

The allegation of plagiarism involved an essay Biden wrote in 1965 while a freshman at Syracuse University. Biden received an “F” on the paper for relying almost exclusively on a Fordham Law Review article, which he cited heavily with footnotes. He said he was allowed to repeat the course and passed with high marks.

Faw would not release details of the investigation, likening it to the confidential proceedings of a grand jury.

Biden told the newspaper that a faculty review concluded the essay was “a poor academic job by the six-week law school freshman, but not a disciplinary or moral problem.”

The allegation of plagiarism and other controversies forced Biden, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to abandon his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 23, 1987.

Biden has indicated he will run for reelection in 1990 and has said he may run for President as soon as 1996.

Talking with the media for the first time about his exoneration, Biden told the newspaper: “I felt very relieved because the reason I initiated this whole thing was that it was the only thing throughout the entire presidential (race) that genuinely bothered me. Because I knew all the rest would be put into perspective.”

Although the plagiarism allegations dogged Biden, the most damaging impact on Biden’s campaign came from the so-called “attack video” distributed to reporters by an aide to rival Democratic candidate Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

The video showed Biden using the words and ideas of British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock without attribution. Biden contends that he usually attributed the quotes, and he called the omissions an oversight.