The photo was altered in some way on the day Al Franken won his Senate election,

[pnwmom]

according to metadata on the photo. It also appears to have been taken on December 21 -- 3 days earlier than on the Christmas Eve flight when Tweeden claims it was taken.

There is also another picture of what appears to be Franken, Tweeden, and others on a flight -- and no one's wearing a flak jacket or strapped into a jump seat. Franken's wearing the same shirt. The tweeter is trying to learn more about when this second picture was taken.

This is the start of a long thread of Twitter. I'm going to check in on it from time to time to see if more develops there.

Link to tweet

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Which includes cropping and messing with exposure/contrast, yes?

[DeltaLitProf]

5. Yes, possibly innocuous changes but . . .

. . . maybe some adjustments so that the hands look closer to touching her? Contracting the shadows? Increasing the thickness of fingers?

[Qutzupalotl]

19. Could also be just saving with a different file name

or in a different location — which is to be expected if his political enemies planned to use it for something later. By itself, this is not evidence of alteration.

[panader0]

2. Just a "coincidence" I'm sure.

[Joe941]

3. set up!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. The 2008 Senate campaign had some of the most vicious, below the belt

campaign ads on behalf of Norm Coleman that I've ever seen - we hadn't previously seen a lot of that sort of ad in Minnesota, where elections have historically been pretty clean and civilized. But Norm "The Weasel" Coleman had the backing of the RNC and the help of Karl Rove, plus plenty of PAC money - and the GOP was determined to keep that Senate seat (which Coleman had in the first place only because a plane crash killed Paul Wellstone in 2002). The anti-Franken ads were mostly about his career as a comedian and his raunchy jokes. They turned over every rock they could find; they went back years to find the worst examples, even though Franken had already admitted he'd written and delivered some pretty x-rated stuff over the years.

But even with the aid of Karl Rove and unlimited GOP PAC money, for some reason the Coleman campaign never found out about the Tweeden incident - or, for that matter, of any other instance where anyone claimed to have been groped, fondled or otherwise harassed by Franken. This suggests to me that there weren't any such incidents, which might be why Franken himself asked for an ethics investigation.

[R B Garr]

7. AH, thanks, very interesting info!

[BigmanPigman]

6. If this is true the Ethics Investigation should be able to

verify it...I think Franken knows that.

[OnDoutside]

8. Which could be why Franken was so anxious for an ethics investigation.

[BigmanPigman]

10. That is what I have been thinking since yesterday.

[Qutzupalotl]

20. I hope the investigation also looks at Roger Stones foreknowledge. n/t

[malaise]

9. They may have messed with the sharpest brain in the Senate

Oops!

[blueinredohio]

11. Hope someone finds out it was messed with, who did it and when

[DavidDvorkin]

12. A word of caution

I'll be delighted if this pans out, but keep in mind that the date and time can be off if the camera's internal date and time weren't set properly.

[pnwmom]

13. Yeah, thanks, that makes sense. But the fact remains that the photo

was altered in some way in July 2009 -- which is very interesting.

[gilpo]

14. Here's the rolled out thread

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/931413204504334336

[former9thward]

15. If it was altered why did he apologize?

[Kingofalldems]

17. Because he is not like Trump.

[former9thward]

18. Oh so he apologizes for things that he didn't do...

Got it ...

[MGKrebs]

21. If she felt like she was assaulted or whatever, you give her

the apology and accept responsibility. It's what thoughtful people do. It's not like we can go back and prove she didn't feel" something.
If it turns out there is something fraudulent that happened, no loss.

[former9thward]

23. I think Franken would know if the picture was fraudulent.

[GeorgeGist]

22. To throw her off guard??

[uncle ray]

16. she claimed that she was given the photo on a CD at the end of the tour.

so she, likely others, including Al Franken himself, likely have the original photo CD. if this photo was doctored years later, the original is likely out there.

[Madam45for2923]

24. Weird that it was photoshopped on same day he was elected.