The Slatest

Two More Women Accuse Franken of Inappropriate Touching

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Capitol Hill, Oct. 31, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Two more women, on Wednesday, accused Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching while at public events with the Democratic senator from Minnesota, according to a HuffPost report. The allegations come days after 33-year-old Lindsay Menz said the former Saturday Night Live star grabbed her butt during a 2010 photo opportunity at the Minnesota State Fair, after Franken had been elected to the senate. Last week, Leeann Tweeden first injected Franken into the national debate on sexual sexual misconduct accusing him of groping and forcibly trying to kiss her while the two were in Afghanistan performing a USO show for the troops in 2006.

The two incidents reported by HuffPost took place roughly a decade ago—one in 2007 and the other in 2008—and are the third and fourth allegations of inappropriate touching by the Minnesota senator. Both women asked to stay anonymous. From HuffPost:

The first woman, a 38-year-old book editor who was living in Minneapolis at the time, told HuffPost that she had just finished performing with a feminist choir at the Women’s Political Caucus event, which Franken and his wife, Franni Bryson, attended. After the ceremony, she and other members of the choir approached him for photos.  “My mother loves Al Franken. She listened to Air America [on which Franken had a radio show] every day,” the first woman said. ”I saw him and asked if we could take a photo together for my mother, and we stood next to each other … and down his hand went.” …

The second woman, who said she was groped at a fundraiser, told HuffPost it took place in the fall of 2008 at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She was excited about attending the event and meeting someone she wanted to support. “I had never attended anything like that,” she said. She and her friends found Franken and introduced themselves to him. “I shook his hand, and he put his arm around my waist and held it there,” the second woman said. “Then he moved it lower and cupped my butt.” “I was completely mortified,” she added. In order to escape the situation, the woman excused herself to go to the bathroom. At that point, she said, Franken leaned in and suggested that he accompany her. She grabbed her friend and fled to the bathroom without him.

HuffPost spoke to people in the two women’s lives who corroborate that each discussed the unwanted advance by Franken at the time of the event. “It’s difficult to respond to anonymous accusers, and I don’t remember those campaign events,” Sen. Franken said in a statement. “I can categorically say that I did not proposition anyone to join me in any bathroom.”