Arianna Huffington denies 'Post' report about photo shoot with Franken

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., touched Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington on the breast and buttocks during a 2000 photo shoot, The New York Post reported Monday, but Huffington said there was nothing "remotely inappropriate" about the photos.

The Post published two photos: one showing Franken touching Huffington as the pair stood back to back, and the other showing Franken grabbing her breast as he hugged her from behind. Citing an unnamed source, the Post said Huffington asked Franken to stop and pushed his hand away. 

Huffington said the photos were intended to reference a comedy sketch the two had performed together.

"The notion that there was anything inappropriate in this photo shoot is truly absurd," Huffington said in a statement to the Post. 

"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," Huffington told the Post. "This shoot was looking back at the sketch, and we were obviously hamming it up for comedic effect."

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"I’ve been great friends with Al and his wife Franni for over 20 years and there has never been anything remotely inappropriate in our interactions," she said. 

Huffington again replied on Tuesday morning in a tweet, saying she was a "better judge" than any bystanders.

"I thought the point of this moment was to believe women’s accounts of their own experiences," she wrote.

Two women have accused the Minnesota senator of sexual misconduct. Lindsay Menz, 33, told CNN that Franken grabbed her buttocks when she posed for a picture with him at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Leeann Tweeden said Franken "forcibly kissed" then later pretended to grope her while she was sleeping during a USO tour in the Middle East to entertain U.S. troops in 2006. 

Here is how the Post's unnamed source described the encounter: 

"Franken was clowning around, but it really isn’t funny," said a source from the shoot. "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 source said. 

More:Second woman accuses Sen. Franken of sexual misconduct: report

More:Al Franken 'will not appear substantially' when PBS broadcasts David Letterman tribute