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Rep. Weiner and College Student Insist Lewd Photo Was Sent By Hacker

By Amy Zimmer | May 30, 2011 10:39am
New York Rep. Anthony Weiner said a hacker sent a picture from his Twitter account. He's pictured here on the House floor after the 9/11 Health Car Bill was voted down last year.
New York Rep. Anthony Weiner said a hacker sent a picture from his Twitter account. He's pictured here on the House floor after the 9/11 Health Car Bill was voted down last year.
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AP Photo/Susan Walsh

By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — Rep. Anthony Weiner continues to insist that it must have been a hacker who sent a lewd crotch shot of a bulge in boxer shorts from the congressman's Twitter account.

"Anthony's accounts were obviously hacked," the Queens and Brooklyn congressman's spokesman told the Associated Press. "He doesn't know the person named by the hacker, and we will be consulting on what steps to take next."

The photo went viral after being posted on Saturday night by BigGovernment.com, a site run by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, which said the image was tweeted to a Seattle woman.

The college student who received the tweet, Gennette Cordova, 21, of Seattle, told the Daily News she was a fan of the congressman but had never met him.

In a statement to the paper, she blamed the photo on a person who had harassed her "many times" after Weiner followed her on Twitter roughly a month ago. She believed it was "this person and his cohorts" latest attempt at "defaming" the congressman.

"I have seen myself labeled as the 'Femme Fatale of Weinergate,' 'Anthony Weiner's 21-year-old coed mistress' and 'the self-proclaimed girlfriend of Anthony Weiner,'" she said in the statement. "All of this is so outlandish that I don't know whether to be pissed off or amused, quite frankly."

She said that she once tweeted that, "I wonder what my boyfriend @RepWeiner is up to," but that "contrary to the impression that I apparently gave from my tweet, I am not his girlfriend. Nor am I the wife, girlfriend or mistress of Barack Obama, Ray Allen or Cristiano Ronaldo, despite the fact that I have made similar assertions about them via Twitter."

Weiner, a prolific tweeter, poked some light of the situation on his Twitter account, writing "Tivo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next?"

He told Politico, “The weiner gags never get old, I guess."

The tweet was "a distraction" from Weiner's "important work representing his constituents," his spokesman told the AP.

Weiner, 46, who is married to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was a former New York City mayoral hopeful and is still widely considered contender for the upcoming race.