New allegations against Sen. Al Franken

The Senate Ethics Committee formally launched an investigation into Sen. Al Franken on Thursday, hours after another woman said the Minnesota senator groped her.

As allegations mounted against Franken, several fellow Democratic members of Congress said Thursday that he should resign. Rep. Joe Crowley of New York, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio said separately that it’s time for Franken to go.

“These are credible allegations, and I believe these women,” Ryan tweeted, in reference to allegations against both Franken and U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, also a Democrat. Franken so far has resisted calls to resign, instead supporting the Ethics Committee investigation.

“While the Committee does not generally comment on pending matters or matters that may come before it, in this instance, the Committee is publicly confirming that it has opened a preliminary inquiry into Senator Franken’s alleged misconduct,” read a letter from the six-member Ethics Committee, comprised of three Republicans and three Democrats.

In the latest allegations, an Army veteran accused Franken of groping her. Stephanie Kemplin told CNN that Franken threw an arm around her and cupped her breast as she posed with him after a USO show while she was deployed in Kuwait in December 2003.

For the past two weeks, Franken has been battered by a series of accounts from women, both named and unnamed, who say they were groped, harassed or made to feel uncomfortable by the senator.

Franken’s office responded to Kemplin’s account with a variation of the response it has given to other allegations from women in recent days: “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. He remains fully committed to cooperating with the ethics investigation.”

Back home, a handful of DFL candidates, including gubernatorial hopefuls Erin Murphy and Rebecca Otto, said after the first allegations against Franken that he should resign. On Thursday, Joe Sullivan, one of several DFLers running for southern Minnesota’s open First District congressional seat, also called for Franken’s resignation, saying elected officials “should be held to a higher standard.”