Ninth Woman Accuses Al Franken of Groping Her

A ninth woman is alleging former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) groped her while she was working on Capitol Hill, a new report states.

According to The Cut, the woman, who requested to remain anonymous, alleges the incident occurred while she was working as a staffer for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) in 2006. The alleged victim says Frankin put his hand on her behind as the pair took a photograph together.

“He’s telling the photographer, ‘Take another one. I think I blinked. Take another one.’ And I’m just frozen. It’s so violating. And then he gives me a little squeeze on my buttock, and I am bright red. I don’t say anything at the time, but I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable,” she said.

Further, The Cut reports that the woman “spoke to three individuals in whom she had confided after the first Franken accusations emerged; she says that she did not tell anyone about the incident after it happened out of embarrassment.”

The woman, who now works at an unnamed progressive organization, said she opted against telling her story due to fears that it could hinder her career prospects in Democrat circles.

“[K]nowing the vetting process, I know that anything can be used as a flag to say, ‘Not this person.’ The idea that I would not get a job and would always wonder: Was it the article where I was the one who was raising my hand against a powerful man?” she told the publication.

Franken resigned from the U.S. Senate on January 2, 2018, in the wake of several allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

The former Saturday Night Live star, in a statement to the news site, said of the latest accusations: “Two years ago, I would have sworn that I’d never done anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but it’s clear that I must have been doing something. As I’ve said before, I feel terrible that anyone came away from an interaction with me feeling bad.”

Franken, who recently signed an agreement to host a weekly show on SiriusXM, is slated to appear Wednesday evening at a sold-out speaking engagement in Portland, Oregon.

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