Congressman Anthony Weiner admits to sending a lewd photo of himself via Twitter to a Seattle woman at a press conference on June 6, 2011
Scandal: Sending sexual messages and photos via social-networking sites, then lying about it
How he was outed: Mistakenly sent a lewd photo from his Twitter account
On May 27, 2011, New York Representative Anthony Weiner publicly tweeted a photo of a penis (later admitted to be his own) to a 21-year-old woman from Seattle. After realizing his mistake (he had meant to direct-message the photo), the married Congressman told the media that his Twitter account had been hacked. Democrats offered Weiner their support, and the press did not immediately cover the story. But when conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart claimed to possess more sexually charged photos of Weiner, and when Weiner himself dodged questions and gave inconclusive answers in a series of interviews, the scandal proved too sensational to fade. After 10 days of denying that he sent the picture, Weiner confessed during a June 6 press conference to sending the photo and to having online relationships with six women. But he maintained that he never met any of the women in person and did not believe he had broken any laws. Nevertheless, the pressure from Congress was fierce and on June 16 Weiner resigned.