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Anthony Weiner "can't say with certitude" lewd photo's not him
(Credit:
Getty)
Updated at 2:55 p.m. ET
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said today that he did not send a lewd photo to a college student from his Twitter account, but he evaded questions as to whether the photograph was of him.
"Well, the main question that a lot of people are asking is did I send the photograph," Weiner said in an interview with CBS News. "I did not. This was a prank, a hoax."
The congressman avoided answering the question directly to CBS News. In an interview with NBC, Weiner said, "I can't say with certitude" that the picture is not of him.
He told CBS News, "Photographs can be inserted, photographs can be manipulated -- we're trying to get to the bottom of it, but the important thing here is this was a prank made on me."
The photo in question was a close-up shot of a man's underwear, which was tweeted from Weiner's account Friday night. The picture, addressed to a Seattle college student's Twitter handle @GennetteC, was visible to all of the congressman's followers.
Weiner's office over the weekend said the congressman's Twitter account was hacked, but on Tuesday, Weiner resisted answering questions about the incident.
Weiner's office said Monday he hired a lawyer to possibly pursue civil or criminal charges in the matter. He told CBS News he has hired a private security firm "to the bottom of the photograph" and "make sure this does not happen again."
He has not, however, asked the FBI or Capitol Police to step in. Weiner said it wasn't worth the government resources.
"I'm not really sure it rises, no pun intended, to that level" of seriousness, Weiner told NBC. "This is not a national security matter... The things I do want to work on in Congress here are being interrupted by this, which I think was the intention of the person that did this."
In addition to the young woman who was the recipient of the questionable tweet, other people Weiner follows on Twitter are being "harrassed" by the media, the congressman said. Weiner noted the reaction of his wife of less than a year, Huma Abedin, who works as an aide for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Even for someone who went through the Clinton years, this is a befuddling experience," he said to NBC.
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Stephanie Condon Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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