Al Franken cupped Army soldier’s breast while she was deployed in Kuwait, she says

An Army veteran tells CNN that U.S. Sen. Al Franken cupped her breast while she was deployed in Kuwait.

Stephanie Kemplin, 41, of Ohio, is the fifth woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against the Minnesota Democrat.

The reporter who broke the story, MJ Lee, tweeted that she “lost count of how many times she (Kemplin) cried in our many conversations.”

Kemplin told CNN that the incident happened in 2003, when Franken was visiting troops. She said she got in line for a photo with Franken, then a comedian and writer, because she was a fan of “Saturday Night Live.”

“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.”

She said she felt embarrassment and considered whether the touching was inadvertent.

“I was in a war zone... You (Franken) were on a USO tour. Are you trying to boost the morale of the troops or are you trying to boost your own?” Kemplin told CNN.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Franken said the senator has “taken 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.”

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Al Franken cupped Army soldier’s breast while she was deployed in Kuwait, she says."