Weiner hires lawyer after Twitter incident
Updated at 2 p.m. with video and new quotes
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) is chalking up the lewd photo sent from his Twitter account over the weekend as a prank, but he has nonetheless hired a lawyer to explore pressing civil or criminal charges in the incident.
On Friday night, a close-up picture of a man's underwear was tweeted from Weiner's account. The picture was visible to all of the congressman's tens of thousands of followers but addressed specifically to a Seattle college student.
Weiner's spokesman told the New York Daily News the congressman is "loathe" to treat the incident as anything more than the work of a mischievous hacker, but is still "relying on professional advice."
When approached by CBS News today, Weiner would not say why he chose to hire a lawyer rather than let law enforcement handle it. Nor would he say why he was following a college student on Twitter, or whether or not the picture was of him. Weiner said he had spent the weekend giving answers and wanted to put the matter to rest.
"I'm not going to talk about this anymore," he said. "I think that if I was giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone stood up and heckled in the back, I wouldn't spend three days talking to him. I'm going to get back to the conversation I care about." (Watch Weiner's response in the video above.)
"We have a debt limit vote tonight that really puts the economy of our country in peril," Weiner continued. "We have a Supreme Court justice who I believe is conflicted and is not recusing himself from the health care vote. We have a lot of challenges to face, and I'm going to get back to work today."
Gennette Cordova, the college student who received the photo, told the Daily News she's never met Weiner, nor has she ever been to Washington or to New York. She said she believed the congressman did not send the picture himself.
Soon after the incident, Weiner released a tweet, in his typical, sharp-tongued fashion, playing down the hack: "Tivo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next? #TheToasterIsVeryLoyal"
In a statement to Politico, the congressman took a more serious tack: "At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject," he said. "I don't. This was a prank, and a silly one. I'm focused on my work."
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Buh bye Weiner, you little effing jerk. We always knew you were a pervert waiting to be outed. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
"xlib" - no, that's the REPUBLICAN clown show you must be referring to. Seven Dwarfs so far, and counting.
Couldn't happen to a more slimey little loudmouth.
He thought he was just tweeting the one little girl he'd been following but accidently tweeted his whole list. He got caught in his underwear and now refuses to let the capitol police investigate and has lawyered up.
I love how everyone says "he's too smart, he was set up, why would he do that". That's what they said about Clinton too as he looked the American Public in the eye and said "I did not have sex with that woman"...which quickly evolved into "depends on your definition of sex"...which quickly became "I lost my cigar".
Sure, both of these guys are omnipresent and write code on the side. If they did humiliate him in this manner, why doesn't he call the cops on these school ground bullies? Oh. . . then we'd know for sure. . .
Do you know who Tom Coburn is? How do toy feel about him... just curious?
Why was Anthony Weiner following a college girl [on Twitter]?
Why not? Americans over the age of eighteen are allowed to vote and are considered adults. Adults can communicate with each other.
Besides, following on twitter isn't a big deal. AND most important -- the young lady who received this photo said she knew the tweet was not from Weiner, but from some other person who had harassed her (and other Weiner supporters) previously.
So, take your fake outrage and let's see who is responsible before we condemn someone. Innocent until proven guilty applies to American politicians, equally as to all other Americans.
My money is on Breitbart operative getting caught on this one. Yes, I am betting that line, because I despise everything Andrew Breitbart does and stands for.... my right as an American!