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Al Franken has resigned from the U.S. Senate after claims of sexual harassment began to pile up against the Minnesota lawmaker. Many analysts speculated the move would come after members of Franken’s own Democratic Party rallied with one another to ask for the former SNL funnyman to step down.

In a speech in where he declared that some of the claims were untrue, Franken expressed his stance that he welcomed an ethics committee to investigate his conduct and thought the findings would go in his favor. However, the grouping of senators who stepped forward to ask him to step down proved to be too much to fight against.

The Hill writes:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) resigned from the Senate on Thursday in a defiant speech in which he said some accusations of sexual misconduct against him were not true, while others he remembered differently.

Franken, who faced enormous pressure from his own colleagues to step down, insisted he had done nothing to bring “dishonor” to the Senate since joining the body in 2009. He also expressed confidence that an ethics panel would have cleared him.

“I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution, and I am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree,” he said from the Senate floor. “Nevertheless, today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate.”

The outlet adds that Franken took shots at President Donald Trump, who faced similar accusations, and at Roy Moore, who has been dogged by claims of preying on young girls while chasing a U.S. Senate seat.  A timeline for Franken to officially step away has not been established, but Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, also a Democrat, will likely replace Franken with Lt. Gov. Tina Smith when that time comes.

Photo: screen cap