Twitter Trail Casts Doubts on Weiner's Claims

TweetDeck application used for all of Weiner's posts that evening
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 6, 2011 6:08 AM CDT
Updated Jun 6, 2011 7:25 AM CDT
Twitter Trail Casts Doubts on Weiner's Claims
Evidence that all of Rep. Anthony Weiner's Twitter messages came from the same application casts doubt on his claims of being hacked.   (Getty Images)

Rep. Anthony Weiner's tale of a hacked Twitter account being responsible for his lewd underwear tweet just got more complicated—the groin shot was posted via TweetDeck, as were all of the congressman's messages that evening. If the underwear tweet had come from a different Twitter application, that could have bolstered his claim that his Twitter account was hacked, but the fact that all the messages that evening were sent using the same application “does make it more plausible that it did come from him," a security advisor told The Daily.

And it probably rules out the possibility that email was used—had it been, "the message probably would have originated via the photosharing site Yfrog, where the infamous picture was posted," notes The Daily. But "you have to keep in mind that if the person’s goal was really to frame this guy and really embarrass him … they know all the previous posts,” said one security expert. “They’re going out of their way to make sure it looks like it came from him." The founder of TweetCongress.org, which provided The Daily with the data, sees an easy solution: Weiner just needs to "call for a criminal investigation. All they have to do is look at his TweetDeck and see if it came from there, see what IP address [it had]. The local police department or Capitol Police could probably figure this out in 15 minutes." (More Anthony Weiner stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X