Al Franken faces new allegation of groping

Days after he made his late-night return and debuted his new radio show, former Senator Al Franken is facing a new allegation of sexual misconduct.

In a piece published Monday by New York magazine's The Cut, an unnamed woman accuses the former Democratic senator of groping her while they were taking a photo together at a 2006 event. She says she was working for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) at the time in what was her first job out of college.

"I'm just frozen," she recalled to The Cut. "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."

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The woman is identified in the article as a current senior staffer at a progressive organization, and she says she didn't come forward before out of fear doing so would hurt her career, explaining, "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 also said she wanted to run for office but that this "rocked my confidence."

This, The Cut notes, is the ninth allegation of misconduct to emerge against Franken, who announced his resignation in 2017 after being accused of forcible kissing and groping. In response to a previous allegation of groping a woman while taking a photo, Franken said in 2017, "I'm a warm person; I hug people. I've learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women — and I know that any number is too many."

This new allegation comes after Franken made his late-night talk show return with an appearance on Conan last week, where he said he "deserved due process" prior to his resignation. Franken also recently debuted a new radio show on SiriusXM.