It is the
first allegation of improper touching by Franken, who is a Democrat,
while he was in office. It comes just days after Leeann Tweeden, a local
radio news anchor in California, said that Franken forcibly kissed and groped her in 2006, when Franken was a comedian.
Franken has since issued an apology to Tweeden and faces a potential investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee.
Lindsay
Menz, a 33-year-old woman who now lives in Frisco, Texas, reached out
to CNN on Thursday hours after Tweeden made her story public. Menz said
she wanted to share an "uncomfortable" interaction that left her feeling
"gross."
According to Menz, she
attended the Minnesota State Fair with her husband and father in the
summer of 2010, almost two years after Franken was elected to the
Senate. Her father's small business was sponsoring a local radio booth,
and she spent the day meeting various elected officials, political
candidates and celebrities and taking photos with them as they stopped
by the booth.
When
Franken walked in, Menz and her husband, who also spoke with CNN, said
they recognized him right away. Menz said she had a brief and cordial
exchange with the senator.
Then, as
her husband held up her phone and got ready to snap a photo of the two
of them, 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."
"He
reached around her and kind of pulled her into him," said her husband
Jeremy Menz, who didn't see what happened behind his wife. "He pulled
her in and pushed his head against her head. It was over pretty quick."
Lindsay
Menz told CNN that she walked away as soon as the photo was taken,
without saying anything to the then-first term senator. When she
reconnected with her husband moments later, she told him: "He totally
grabbed my butt." Jeremy Menz described that conversation the same way
to CNN.
In a statement to CNN
Sunday, Franken said he did not remember taking the photo with Menz and
that he felt "badly" that she felt disrespected.
"I
take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of
people, and I certainly don't remember taking this picture," Franken
said. "I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling
disrespected."
"I felt gross. It'd
be like being walking through the mall and some random person grabbing
your butt," Lindsay Menz said. "You just feel gross. Like ew, I want to
wash that off of me."
"I was upset.
I wasn't happy about it in the least," Jeremy Menz said. "He was
already gone and I wasn't going to confront him. But yeah -- I was in
shock, really."
Menz's father, Mark
Brown, was also in the radio booth that day but didn't witness the
moment. But he told CNN that his daughter told him about the incident
right away.
Menz's mother, Jodi
Brown, also told CNN that she discussed the incident with her daughter
immediately after it happened. She said she distinctly recalls her
son-in-law saying to her: "Our senator just groped my wife right in
front of me."
In the photo of Menz
and Franken, the side of the senator's face is pressed up against Menz's
but the lower halves of their bodies are not shown. Both of them are
smiling.
Menz posted the photo with
Franken on Facebook at the time, on August 27, 2010. Her sister, Cari
Thunker, commented under the photo: "Sorry, but you two aren't Bibles
(sic) width apart" -- a reference, Thunker explained to CNN, to how
physically close Menz and Franken were in the photo.
Menz
responded to her sister on Facebook: "Dude -- Al Franken TOTALLY
molested me! Creeper!" (The exchange is visible to Menz's Facebook
friends.)
Minnesota statutes state
that "intentional touching of the clothing covering the immediate area
of the buttocks" is not considered criminal sexual conduct.
Menz
told CNN that what happened immediately after she took the photo with
Franken that summer day in 2010 has also stayed with her. Standing
nearby was another politician -- then-Minnesota Rep. John Kline.
As
she was getting ready to take a picture with Kline, Menz said the
congressman asked her whether they should "mutually put our arms around
each other" -- an interaction that struck her as being in stark contrast
with what she had experienced moments ago with Franken.
Reached
on the phone on Friday, Kline, a Republican who retired from Congress
this year, confirmed that he attended the Minnesota State Fair in 2010,
as he did most years. Kline could not remember seeing the interaction
between Menz and Franken. But when CNN described Menz's recollection of
her interaction with Kline before they took a photo together, he told
CNN: "As a matter of practice, I did that all the time."
"If
somebody wanted a picture, I would ask: should I put my arm on your
back or your shoulder?" Kline said. He said that as a congressman, he
was particularly inclined to do this when taking photos with women.
Lindsay
and Jeremy Menz moved from Minnesota to Texas in 2014. Lindsay Menz is
now a stay-at-home-mom of three young kids. Neither is registered with a
political party and she said she has equally supported Republican and
Democratic candidates while he said he has tended to favor Republicans.
The couple voted last year for Donald Trump, and Menz said she has voted
for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is a Democrat, in the past. Menz
said she believes she has voted for Franken as well, but is not sure.
When
Menz saw the news of Tweeden's allegations against Franken on Thursday,
she immediately discussed her own run-in with the senator from 2010
with her family. She also posted about it on Twitter and Facebook.
A
friend encouraged Menz to contact a CNN reporter after seeing the
network's coverage of sexual harassment in recent days. Menz was
emphatic that she "absolutely" would not have decided to share her story
had Tweeden not done the same.
"I
don't want to paint my story in the same light as hers," Menz said,
saying she believes what happened to Tweeden is much worse.
Still,
she said, "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."
Franken has not made further
statements to the press since releasing two apologies on Thursday. He
has said he intends to fully cooperate if there is a Senate Ethics
Committee investigation into his behavior.
"I
respect women. I don't respect men who don't. And the fact that my own
actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel
ashamed," he said in a statement. "I understand why we need to listen to
and believe women's experiences."
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