Al Franken Gets Another Groping Allegation – The Second From His USO Tour
Al Franken in 2015. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman November 30, 2017
Senator Al Franken has been accused of sexual misconduct for a fifth time, this time by an army veteran, CNN reported.
Stephanie Kemplin, of Ohio, is claiming that Franken groped her breast during a photo op while he was on a USO tour in 2006. The first public allegation of sexual misconduct against Franken also came out of that USO tour.
Kemplin described how Franken reached his arm around her shoulders when she came to take a photo with him.
“When he put his arm around me, he groped my right breast. He kept his hand all the way over on my breast,” Kemplin told CNN. “I’ve never had a man put their arm around me and then cup my breast. So he was holding my breast on the side.”
Kemplin, who was 27 at the time, eventually turned to the side to take the photo, which CNN published.
“As Sen. Franken made clear this week, he takes thousands of photos and has met tens of thousands of people and he has never intentionally engaged in this kind of conduct,” a spokesperson for Franken told CNN. “He remains fully committed to cooperating with the ethics investigation.”
Kemplin reportedly cried in interviews at the memory of being groped.
“I was in a war zone… You were on a USO tour — are you trying to boost the morale of the troops or are you trying to boost your own?” she said. “I just feel so sorry for that young girl in that picture.”
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
