Less than a week after news anchor Leeann Tweeden accused Minnesota Senator Al Franken of forcefully kissing her and groping her as she slept while on a USO tour in 2006, another woman has come forward to accuse Franken of groping her during a photo op at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. The timeline on the two accusations is significant, as by 2010 Franken was serving in the U.S. Senate after narrowly winning his seat in 2008.
According to CNN, 33-year-old Lindsay Menz reached out to the news network after seeing a report on Tweeden’s accusations against Franken, saying she “wanted to share an ‘uncomfortable’ interaction that left her feeling ‘gross.’” Menz was working at a booth for a local radio station at the fair, and when Franken stopped by, she greeted him before the two posed for a picture. As Menz’s husband prepared to take the photo, she says 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. It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek … I was like, oh my God, what’s happening.”
Menz said she told her husband and father about the incident right after it happened, and when she posted the picture on Facebook, even her sister noted how close Franken was to her in the photo. “I felt gross. It’d be like being walking through the mall and some random person grabbing your butt,” Menz says. “You just feel gross. Like ew, I want to wash that off of me.” She insists that what happened to Tweeden much worse than her experience, adding, “the reason I want to say something is if someone sees that I said something, maybe it would give them the courage to say something too.”
Contacted by CNN for comment, Franken says in a statement: “I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don’t remember taking this picture. I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.”