Al Franken Did Not Molest Arianna Huffington, She Says Responding To Photo

Co-founder of Huffington Post and CEO of Thrive Global, Arianna Huffington denied Sen. Al Franken inappropriately touched her during a photo shoot in 2000, which came out in a New York Post Page Six exclusive report Monday.

The report by Page Six showed pictures of the Senator and comedian Al Franken holding the buttocks of Huffington when they were posing with their backs to each other. The report also stated there were pictures which showed Franken touching Huffington’s breasts with one hand.

An unnamed source, who was present during the photo shoot, reportedly told Page Six, “Franken was clowning around, but it really isn’t funny.” The source added, “That’s his tactic, pretend like it’s all a big joke. Arianna was pushing his hands away. He was groping her. There was some fun attached to it, but she wasn’t enjoying it. She definitely told him to stop and pushed him away. … Franken stood there with his hand on her bottom for a long time, because there are numerous frames, each taken seconds apart, and his hand was there the whole time — his hand wasn’t just there for a quick moment.”

The pictures were taken by a photographer named Harry Benson, who Page Six reported, declined to comment on the issue.

However, Huffington denied these accusations and said the pictures were for a TV sketch they did in 1996.

She said in the statement, “Al and I did a comedic sketch for Bill Maher’s ‘Politically Incorrect’ called ‘Strange Bedfellows,’ in which the whole point, as the name makes clear, was that we were doing political commentary from bed. This shoot was looking back at the sketch, and we were obviously hamming it up for comedic effect. … The notion that there was anything inappropriate in this photo shoot is truly absurd.”

She went on to state she has been a “great friend” to Franken and his wife Franni for 20 years and confirmed there was no “inappropriate” actions during their “interactions.”

In the segment, Huffington and Franken discussed various topics relevant during the 90s, which included Bob Dole, Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich.

During the segment, she also joked, “Good evening. I’m the beautiful but evil Arianna Huffington, in bed with the talented but smug Al Franken.”

After the New York Post report got published, Bill Maher posted a tweet lashing out at the falsity of the facts.

Huffington has been quite vocal about sexual harassment in recent times. According to a CNBC report in October, Huffington reportedly said the revelations of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein will serve as a “catalyst” for big changes.

She added, “Obviously, a lot is coming into the light, as right now, we're living through this period where — especially because of social media — it's very hard for companies and CEOs to hide behind amazing advertising and a public relations team.”

According to a Gizmodo report, Huffington was involved in the transfer of one of the Huffington Post editors, Jimmy Soni, to India. The report said the decision came after an HR investigation revealed he sexually harassed multiple women in the organization.

Sen. Al Franken was recently accused of forcibly kissing and groping a sports radio broadcaster Leeann Tweeden, for which he also issued an apology.

Franken’s history with sexual misconduct was also exposed by Donald Trump in a tweet on Friday where he referred to an old “rape” joke, which the Senator made regarding journalist Lesley Stahl in 1995.