More allegations of sexual harassment are coming out against Democratic Senator Al Franken. Two more women allege Franken groped their rear ends in separate incidents.
These allegations follow allegations last week from radio host Leeann Tweeden, who says Franken groped her during a 2006 USO tour. Another is from Lindsay Menz, who accused Franken of groping her in 2010 at the Minnesota State Fair.
These two new allegations stem from Franken’s first senatorial campaign in 2007, with women unfamiliar to each other, but their stories are similar. Both confessed the details to others years ago.
The first woman, a 38-year-old book editor, told HuffPost that her interaction with Franken came after she had performed with a feminist choir at the Women’s Political Caucus event on June 25, 2007. She stated, “My story is eerily similar to Lindsay Menz’s story. He grabbed my buttocks during a photo op.”
Franken was at the event with his wife, Franni Bryson. The woman say after the ceremony ended, members of the choir asked to take photos with Franken. The woman continued:
“My mother loves Al Franken. She listened to Air America every day. 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.”
Two sources corroborated the woman’s story to the Huffington Post. The first woman’s best friend says the victim told her what happened the day after it happened saying:
“She was in this all-women’s choir and he was at an event where she performed, and she told me that he basically grabbed her ass. It was a ‘Can you believe this happened to me?’ kind of thing.”
The first woman says at the time she viewed Franken’s actions as a “party trick” and she came forward now because:
“Franken is a serial groper. Only two people have come forward, and people are saying this is a right-wing conspiracy. It’s not. I’m a liberal person. … I voted for him after this happened.”
The second woman told several people, including Huffington Post’s Zachary Roth ― about the incident years ago, but said she didn’t want it to go public because inappropriate behavior from men seemed to be the norm at the time.
She also told the Huffington Post she was excited about attending a 2008 Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, adding:
“I had never attended anything like that. I shook his hand, and he put his arm around my waist and held it there. Then he moved it lower and cupped my butt.”
The second woman claimed she tried to excuse herself to go to the bathroom, but Franken allegedly suggested that he go with her. Instead, she grabbed a friend and ran to the bathroom.
