--- title: Al Franken's Female Staff Issue Statement in His Defense description: Eight of Franken's former female employees speak out after recent sexual assault allegations. canonical: https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/ author: Talia Avakian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-17T21:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:18:02.227Z article:section: Politics og:title: Al Franken's Former Female Staffers Come to His Defense og:description: Eight women say Franken treated them with the "utmost respect" og:url: https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte262c338b50f3066/6988e650ab6d77f95c6b0ade/al-franken1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Al Franken's Former Female Staffers Come to His Defense twitter:description: Eight women say Franken treated them with the "utmost respect" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte262c338b50f3066/6988e650ab6d77f95c6b0ade/al-franken1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Al Franken's Former Female Staffers Come to His Defense: 'He Treated Us With the Utmost Respect' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Talia Avakian](https://time.com/author/talia-avakian/) ## Talia Avakian Nov 17, 2017 9:00 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 01: Senator Al Franken speaks at The Great Hall at Cooper Union on August 1, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 01: Senator Al Franken speaks at The Great Hall at Cooper Union on August 1, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images) Rob Kim/Getty Images by [Talia Avakian](https://time.com/author/talia-avakian/) ## Talia Avakian Nov 17, 2017 9:00 PM UTC Eight of [Sen. Al Franken](http://time.com/5029186/stephen-colbert-on-al-franken/)‘s former female employees defended him on Friday in the wake of accusations that the Senator forcibly kissed and groped KABC radio host [Leeann Tweeden](http://time.com/5028287/elizabeth-warren-al-franken/) in 2006. “In our time working for the senator he treated us with the utmost respect,” the women said in the statement, [according to the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/11/17/former-franken-female-staffers-speak-out-he-treated-us-with-the-utmost-respect/?tid=sm%5FFb&utm%5Fterm=.2ee536940634). “He valued our work and our opinions and was a champion for women both in the legislation he supported and in promoting women to leadership roles in our office.” The eight staffers range from communication personnel to policy aides who worked with him after he was elected to the Senate.. The response comes after Leann Tweeden [accused](http://www.kabc.com/2017/11/16/leeann-tweeden-on-senator-al-franken/) Franken of inappropriately kissing and groping her while running through one of his scripts during the [USO Tour](http://time.com/3102423/robin-williams-funniest-moments/), where he was a host, back in 2006. Franken issued an apology to Tweeden after she published her allegations on Thursday, saying he was remorseful and asking that officials to conduct an ethics investigation. Tweeden later said she accepted [Franken’s apology](http://time.com/5028172/leeann-tweeden-al-franken-apology/), and that she hoped her coming forward would help others feel inspired to do the same. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/"},"headline":"Al Franken's Former Female Staffers Come to His Defense: 'He Treated Us With the Utmost Respect'","datePublished":"2017-11-17T21:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:18:02.227Z","description":"Eight of Franken's former female employees speak out after recent sexual assault allegations.","url":"https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/","keywords":["Senate","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte262c338b50f3066/6988e650ab6d77f95c6b0ade/al-franken1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Talia Avakian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/talia-avakian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte262c338b50f3066/6988e650ab6d77f95c6b0ade/al-franken1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken","caption":"Seth Meyers Interviews Senator Al Franken","creditText":"Rob Kim/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5030073/al-franken-female-staffers-defend/","name":"Al Franken's Former Female Staffers Come to His Defense: 'He Treated Us With the Utmost Respect'"}}]}] ```