Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Al Franken Accused Of Touching 2nd Woman Inappropriately — This Time In Office

A woman accused Senator Al Franken of touching her inappropriately while she took a picture with him at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, CNN reported.

The woman, Lindsay Menz, 33, of Texas, says Franken grabbed her butt cheek while her husband took the picture of her and Franken. Menz’s husband, father and mother all reported Menz telling them about the interaction immediately after it happened. Menz reported the interaction lasting several seconds.

“It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt,” Menz said. “I was like, oh my God, what’s happening.”

In a statement to CNN, Franken apologized for the interaction.

“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.”

Al Franken was accused by a California radio producer last week of groping her breasts while she was sleeping. Franken has been the subject of scorn on President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed for the accusation.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.