Rep. Weiner: I did not send Twitter crotch pic

NEW YORK — A lewd photograph of a crotch sent from the Twitter account of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner is just "a distraction" perpetrated by a hacker, his spokesman said Sunday.

Dave Arnold told The Associated Press in an email that the tweet, directed at a woman, was "a distraction" from the married New York Democrat's "important work representing his constituents."

"Anthony's accounts were obviously hacked," Arnold said. "He doesn't know the person named by the hacker, and we will be consulting on what steps to take next."

The photo showed a man's bulging underpants.

It first was reported Saturday by BigGovernment.com, a website run by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. The site said the photo was tweeted to a Seattle woman.

The photo was quickly deleted.

For her part, the woman who allegedly received the photos also said Rep. Weiner was almost certainly not responsible. In a statement, Genette Cordova said "The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the Congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the Congressman and harassing his supporters.

After being called everything from "Anthony Weiner's 21-year-old coed mistress" to the person responsible for the hack, and after her friends and family were also allegedly harassed, Cordova said: "All of this is so outlandish that I don't know whether to be pissed off or amused, quite frankly."

Weiner later joked about the account hacking on Twitter, asking whether his kitchen blender would be next to "attack" him.

Weiner represents New York's 9th District, which covers parts of Queens and Brooklyn, where he was born and raised. He failed in a 2005 bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor of the city but still is widely considered a contender for the office.

He has worked on issues including public housing, homeland security and energy for his constituents.

Weiner, 46, is married to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

[Lindahearts3]

R U kidding me? If this was a woman her a** would have be thrown out on the street in a heartbeat. What the hell is wrong with all these so called grown men acting like sex maniacs? Aren't we telling our kids not to send pics of themselves in sexting and u have politicians doing this crap on twitter? When my friends and family ask why I don't vote I don't really have to explain, I just tell them to look at the news and read about the wonderful politicans that they vote for...the one's exposing their private parts to younger women, embarassing their family, friends, children and mainly screwing the wonderful people of America that voted for them to see a change.

[noloyalisti]

This is such a non-story drummed up for the entertainment of the shallow, uneducated, lazy, uninvolved complacent and complicit American majority.

No wonder we let the rich corporations and their Republicon pawns steal all our money. We are as dumb and lazy as a bag of hammers.

[APEppink]

Ol' Tony 'Check out my weiner' Weiner, as one guy said. Loox like he'll need that lawyer to cover his a__, or weiner as the case may be.

[Lindag10]

The comments strongly suggest a "rush to judgment". Since the victim appears to believe this was sent by a person who had already harassed her in the past, it seems that Weiner has already been "tried and convicted" in the Court of Public Opinion. That's sad.

[Jeff_L]

Weiner is just another typical politician, corrupt, arrogant, unethical, immoral and completely sleazy. He should be put through the same type of investigation and punishment that he and his ilk ask for in cases of others.

[valentina1963]

Where is the FBI investigation of the "alleged" hacking of Mr. Weiner's twitter account? This is a congressman and anyone impersonating him, even hacking his twitter account, is guilty of a federal offense.

Also, if this was truely a "hack" how did Mr. Weiner get logged back into his account within 3 minutes of the "crotch photo" being sent?? (Thanks to Bill O'Reilly)

[fthomascain]

Weiner-the one time roomate of Jon Stewart-is a nutty little dwarf that is Left of Lenin. He loves screaming and putting down anyone that does not share his twisted,wrong minded, outdated failed Socialist paradigms. Funny how all these "we know best" liberal types all have dirty little secrets hiding in their twisted little Liberal minds!

[__One__American__]

Funny that Weiner refuses to allow the FBI to investigate the so-called "hacking" - but he lawyers up - probably because he knows he is in trouble with his "conspiracy" story.

I think the FBI should be asking a few questions of Mr. Weiner, regardless.

Sending lewd photos to a young girl half his age should concern the public - and Mr. Weiner's wife.

[umbragetaker]

I have read the comments from sorehead conservatives and am comforted to know that when they take over the world everyone who has an opinion different from their own will be assumed guilty until proven innocent and even then to perpetuate the lie that they are guilty.

[fedup12]

So Weiner sent a picture of his weiner?

I know I know.... Very jr. high.