The Slatest

Woman Accuses Al Franken of Groping Her While Posing for Photo

Sen. Al Franken during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Tuesday in Washington.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A second allegation against Sen. Al Franken emerged Monday, this time from a woman who has accused Franken of grabbing her buttocks while taking a photo in 2010, according to a report from CNN.

The allegation follows an article published Thursday in which Leeann Tweeden, a radio news anchor in California, wrote that Franken forcibly kissed her in 2006. She also provided a photo showing Franken apparently groping her while she slept. Franken issued an apology, but he has still faced calls for him to resign and a potential ethics investigation.

On Monday, CNN reported that 33-year-old Lindsay Menz from Frisco, Texas, told the network after Tweeden’s announcement that she had her own “uncomfortable” interaction with Franken.

Menz said in 2010 she went to the Minnesota State Fair with her husband and father and met various officials and celebrities while there, as her father’s business was sponsoring a local radio booth. Franken had been elected to the Senate in 2008.

When she met Franken, she said she had a short exchange with the senator and lined up with him to take a photo. According to CNN:

Franken “pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear,” Menz said. “It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek.”

“It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt,” she said, recalling that the brazen act lasted three or four seconds. “I was like, oh my God, what’s happening.”

She said she didn’t say anything to the senator but later told her husband and father soon after, as the two men confirmed to CNN.

Franken said in a statement to CNN that he did not remember the incident and that he felt “badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.”