A fifth woman has spoken out to accuse Sen. Al Franken of groping – this time an Army veteran.
Stephanie Kemplin, 41, attended a USO tour event in Kuwait featuring the then-comedian in December 2003.
After the show, the Ohio resident waited in line to get a picture with Franken because she was a big fan of Saturday Night Live growing up.
But when it came her turn to pose with the funnyman, she says he reached around and grabbed her breast.
‘When he put his arm around me, he groped my right breast. He kept his hand all the way over on my breast,’ Kemplin, who was 27 at the time, 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.’
A fifth woman has come out to accuse Sen. Al Franken of groping. Stephanie Kemplin, left, says Franken groped her during this picture in 2003, during a USO tour event in Kuwait
Kemplin said the touching lasted for five to 10 seconds, before she turned her body to move his hand off her breast.
‘I remember clenching up and how you just feel yourself flushed,’ she said. ‘And I remember thinking – is he going to move his hand? Was it an accident? Was he going to move his hand? He never moved his hand.’
She added: ‘It was long enough that he should have known if it was an accident. I’m very confident saying that.’
The photo, which Kemplin shared with CNN, shows her smiling awkwardly, her body turned in towards Franken and her cheek pressed up against his face.
Kemplin says she doesn’t remember telling any of her fellow soliders about the incident, but she did tell multiple members of her family and her ex-boyfriend, who she started dating after the two returned from the Middle East.
CNN interviewed Kemplin’s sister and the ex-boyfriend and they told the outlet what they remembered of the incident.
‘I just remember her telling me that he grabbed her breast and that she was so shocked about it,’ her older sister said . ‘My sister is pretty bold and assertive and she said that she didn’t know what to do.’
Her ex-boyfriend says he doesn’t remember all of the details of the Fraknen encounter, but says he does remember his ex saying ‘he went to put his arm around her and copped a feel’.
Kemplin is the fifth woman to come forward with such allegations against Franken, the junior senator from Minnesota and a high-profile democrat.
On Monday, he apologized for his behavior but said he would not be stepping down. He said he will cooperate with an ethics investigation.
‘I am going to try to learn from my mistakes,’ the Minnesota Democratic senator told reporters at the Capitol in his first televised press conference since the allegations came to light.
Kemplin was the second woman to accuse Fraken of groping her during a USO tour, before he went into politics.
Three of the accusers said that Franken grabbed their buttocks while taking photos with them during campaign events.
Franken told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he doesn’t remember the photos, but such groping is ‘not something I would intentionally do.’
The first woman to come forward was Los Angeles radio news anchor Leeann Tweeden.
She released a photo this month showing the then-comedian Franken grinning while reaching out as if to grope her breasts as she slept on a military aircraft during a USO tour in 2006.
Franken told Minnesota Public Radio on Sunday the photo was ‘inexcusable’, but he declined to explain it further.
‘What my intention was doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am chained to that photo,’ Franken said.
‘She … didn’t have any ability to consent. She had every right to feel violated by that photo. I have apologized to her and I was very grateful that she accepted my apology.’
Tweeden said Franken also forcibly kissed her while rehearsing for a USO performance, but Franken has said he has a different recollection of the rehearsal.
Another woman, Lindsay Menz, alleges Franken pulled her in closely and squeezed her buttocks while they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.
Two other women, speaking anonymously to The Huffington Post, said Franken grabbed their buttocks during political events in 2007 and 2008, during his first Senate campaign.
‘I don’t remember these photographs. I don’t,’ he said Sunday, estimating he has taken ‘tens of thousands’ of photos with other people over the years. ‘This is not something I would intentionally do.’
Franken faces a Senate ethics investigation – which he welcomed in the wake of Tweeden’s allegation – though it’s unclear when that review may begin. Franken, who hasn’t faced widespread calls to resign, said he will fully cooperate.
Franken sidestepped questions on Sunday about whether the allegations would make him less effective in the Senate. He noted he has apologized to women who have felt disrespected and ‘to everyone I have let down.’
‘I think this will take some time,’ he told Minnesota Public Radio. ‘I am trying to handle this in a way that adds to an important conversation. And to be a better public servant and a better man. That is what my goal is.’
Franken came to the Senate after a months-long recount gave him a 312-vote victory in his 2008 election. He immediately tried to distance himself from his decades of professional comedy, which included off-color jokes about rape and disparaging women. He also avoided national reporters.
Dozens of women who’ve worked with Franken, including former Senate staffers and women who worked with him on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live,’ signed statements supporting Franken following Tweeden’s allegations.