Anthony Weiner Photos & Twitter Scandal: A Timeline

WASHINGTON -- A timeline of events in the online sex scandal involving Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.:

Friday, May 27: Weiner uses his Twitter account to send a waist-down photograph of a man's underpants to a 21-year-old female college student in Seattle. He quickly deletes it and sends out a tweet saying that his Facebook account was hacked.

Saturday, May 28: BigGovernment.com, a website run by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, first reports that Weiner sent the lewd photo. Weiner was a Twitter follower of the female college student who received the photo.

Sunday, May 29: A Weiner spokesman tells AP that the lewd photograph of a crotch sent from Weiner's Twitter account was just "a distraction" perpetrated by a hacker.

Tuesday, May 31: Weiner returns to Capitol Hill after the Memorial Day weekend and testily fends off reporters' questions about whether he sent the lewd photo.

"I'm not going to talk about this anymore," Weiner told reporters. "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."

Weiner declines to answer reporters' questions about the photo or why he was hiring a lawyer for the case instead of having law enforcement officials pursue the matter.

Wednesday, June 1: Weiner does a round of network and cable TV interviews, telling MSNBC that he cannot say "with certitude" whether the photo of a man's underpants was of him or not. He jokes a little about it.

"I'm not sure I want to put national, federal resources into trying to figure out who posted a picture on Weiner's website, uh, whatever," he says in explaining why he didn't report the alleged hacking to Capitol Police. I'm not really sure it rises, no pun intended, to that level."

Monday, June 6: The scandal escalates as Breitbart's BigGovernment.com website publishes photos purportedly from a second woman who said she received shirtless shots of the congressman. The site says the pictures were in a cache of intimate online photographs, chats and email exchanges the woman claimed to have. The website does not identify the woman.

Responding, a tearful Weiner makes a profuse public apology at a Manhattan news conference. He admits sending a photo of his underwear-clad crotch to a young woman over Twitter and then lying repeatedly to protect himself.

"This was me doing a dumb thing, and doing it repeatedly, and lying about it," says Weiner.

Weiner also admits he had engaged in inappropriate contact with six women over the course of three years through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and occasionally over the phone. He says he had never met or had a physical relationship with any of the women and was not even sure of their ages.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi calls for a House ethics investigation into whether he broke the rules. Democratic leaders voice disappointment and embarrassment, reflecting an erosion of support for Weiner.

Weiner insists he did nothing wrong, and begins making calls to Democratic colleagues to apologize. He says he has no plans to resign.

Tuesday, June 7: With most Democrats still keeping an uncomfortable silence, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid steps out and delivers a sharp rebuff to Weiner. It's a clear sign of mounting frustrations fellow Democrats have with a scandal they want to see over as soon as possible.

"I know Congressman Weiner," Reid told reporters. "I wish there was some way I can defend him, but I can't."

Wednesday, June 8: An X-rated photo Weiner purportedly took of himself surfaces on a website. Weiner's office issues a statement that did not deny it had been taken of him.

News breaks that Weiner's wife of less than a year, Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is pregnant. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., is the first of several House Democrats to say he should leave office. Pressure for Weiner to resign increases from Democrats.

Friday, June 10: Weiner acknowledges he had exchanged online messages with a 17-year-old girl in Delaware. He says nothing improper had passed between the two of them. At least 9 House Democrats and two Democratic senators call for Weiner to resign.

Saturday, June 11: Rebuffing calls from top Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, to resign, Weiner announces he plans to take a temporary leave of absence from the House and seek unspecified treatment.

Comments

[knerd]

06:25 AM on 06/13/2011

Honesty and empathy can help inform the truths of adolescent juvenilities but we all need to eventually grow up and experience this honesty and empathy from the standpoint of mature adults. Sadly, the congressman is not there yet.

[glddraco]

03:19 AM on 06/13/2011

Correction: Two weeks of a boring nonissue that has nothing but Koch and friends all around it.

[jerzygurl]

07:47 PM on 06/12/2011

It must be so tough when you're a politician named  Weiner and it's proven that you're full of Baloney.

[Tony Ogami]

07:37 PM on 06/12/2011

First of all, set aside the Republican hypocrisy around the scandal. Second, the real scandal here is not about the sexting itself, but rather two salient (and I think career-ending) issues:

First, Anthony Weiner's behavior shows a tremendous amount of recklessness. I mid-level manager of a mid-size company wouldn't be so stupid as to do the things he did with near-complete strangers for fear that they could misuse knowledge/evidence of his behavior.

Second - and perhaps worse - is his cover-up. I was one of his supporters who scoffed at this scandal, especially when I heard that the University student said how ridiculous it was (and that it obviously wasn't true.) When it came out that he had instructed her on exactly what to say, that's really just a slap in my face. See "Anthony Weiner - the game" for more evidence of both points above: http://www.trufflegames.com/newgame.php?gameid=41

In the end, I think he could have saved himself earlier, but screwed up again and again. We need a firebrand liberal with at least a few ounces of dignity, self-restraint, and common sense to stand in our corner. With democrats like these, who the heck needs republicans?

[knott wrench]

07:10 PM on 06/12/2011

This is a "Dead Issue" after this time. ENOUGH! Let's move on to the:

1)Economy 2) Job's 3) Social Security Privatization by the GOP. 4) Natural Disaster Relief
for US Citizens 5) Cutting NATO Support by 50 Percent.

[John Mainstream]

02:52 PM on 06/12/2011

Anthony Weiner is himself a victim of the false standards Congress pretends to adhere to. His high crimes seem to be: 1) getting caught sexting; 2) getting caught lying; 3) becoming an embarssment to the leadership in the Democratic Party; 4) being politically incorrect; 5) being a male creep. Taken all together, this would seem to make Anthony Weiner very well qualified to serve in Congress. Let the poor guy go rehab. Then voters will decide his fate.

[tnlcallen]

01:45 PM on 06/12/2011

You missed the fact that HP took a few days to even report on it, and also the many posts here defending him, and the many conspiracy theories of how exactly he was hacked.

[CGI]

11:20 AM on 06/12/2011

Promising and popular young politician, one of a remaining handful who act as a friend of the people and have taken positions ( and action ) not quite, um, jiving with the status quo, is accused of improprieties unrelated to politics which automatically and irrevocably ostracize him from public service. Just in time for the election.

Such an unfortunate coincidence.

So, as We the People voluntarily swear off yet another of our rarest breed of friend (on the basis of naughty Naughty flirting! On Twitter! With Avatars! ) we should take a minute to bask in our own spotless propriety and decency; after all, to not trouble others with the digging of one's own grave is not only the decent thing to do–It's tradition.

[Richypc]

11:20 AM on 06/12/2011

Yes, and we can move along now.....nothing else to see here people.

[Broomhildie]

11:13 AM on 06/12/2011

Now he was to take a temporary leave? Bwahahaha!...like you can be a monumental womanizing sex addict creepo and still have credibility! Pretty cocky, Mr. Weenie.

[Janine547]

11:05 AM on 06/12/2011

Weiner / Holder ...2012 !

[project cooper]

11:31 AM on 06/12/2011

now that's a sloagon the libby libs. should be able to get a grip on.

[AlsoSarah]

11:04 AM on 06/12/2011

I am hearing alot of comparison between Weiner and Clinton. I don't see any. I am going to side with Clinton on this one. He said he did not have a "sexual reslationship" with lewinski and I agree. He had a ... It is a matter of semantics. I don't consider that a "sexual relationship". Weiner on the other hand blatantly continued to lie and cover up his misdeeds.

[tnlcallen]

01:50 PM on 06/12/2011

Two men caught in a sex scandal who both went on National TV and lied about it. If you can't see the similarity, then I'm guessing you'd lose at the Sesame Street game,"one of these things is not like the other"

[raventug123]

10:34 AM on 06/12/2011

Weiner will resign soon since he's been offered a lucrative job with a New York firm...

http://satireworld.com/us-news-headlines/201106120441/hallmark-weiner-collaborate-and-design-show-the-world-your-willie-diy-greeting-cards/

[AlsoSarah]

10:58 AM on 06/12/2011

I thought Vivid Entertainment was in LA.

[raventug123]

11:08 AM on 06/12/2011

...we get around!

[Stephen Salbod]

09:14 AM on 06/12/2011

If Weiner resigns than I want to see the Republicans (e.g., Vitter) resign too!

There is no scandal here until Breitbart slimmed it up with his fingers. I'm betting that good percentage of Congress tweets to the underage boys and girls.

I'm betting that Weiner's account was hacked!

[mauibob]

10:59 AM on 06/12/2011

Boy, somebody made a good batch of kool-aid today.

[Janine547]

11:10 AM on 06/12/2011

You playing the part of CSI even after Weiner admitted that there was no hacking of his Twitter account is not going to change the facts.

[brownfrown]

08:05 AM on 06/12/2011

You didn't mention that there was a twitter group that was warning young women following Weiner that he may be a some sort of sexual predator at the beginning of May, and it was a member of that group that got the May 27 tweet picture to Breitbart.