Franken to make first public appearance since resignation

Former Sen. Al Franken (D) will make his first public appearance since he resigned after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

Franken is set to speak at CyberScout’s Privacy Xchange Forum in Lisbon, Portugal on May 1, according to the Washington Examiner.

He is expected to discuss Russian interference in the 2016 election and the importance of consumer privacy, according to a press release obtained by the Examiner.

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The former senator said in a statement that the Cambridge Analytica scandal that exposed millions of people’s private data without their permission was not surprising.

“As a Senator, I fought to implement laws that would protect users’ personal information and raised the alarm about the growing influence of these new corporate giants,” Franken said. “Now, I’m coming to Lisbon to talk about what went wrong in the leadup to these scandals — and what we need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Franken represented Minnesota from 2009 to 2018 and officially resigned from the Senate in January. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith (D) was chosen to replace Franken in the Senate.