"Limited resources" and the failure of one of his "trusted associates" to get the "goods" got that hot tip tossed into the "low priority" bin until after the underwear tweet. Dana Loesch was one of a handful of people who happened to see the Weiner tweet which went live at 11:31:50 PM EST on May 27. Team Breitbart then immediately assembled for a conference call - which included at least six (Breitbart, Loesch, Mandy Nagy, Dan Riehl, Ezra Dulis and Lee Stranahan) - and discussed if and how to report the public tweet plus the hot tip they slept on for nearly a fortnight.
"Conspiracy that!" Breitbart mocked me publicly on Twitter in August.
On June 18, days after Weiner resigned, The New York Times published an article which I worked on with Jennifer Preston called "Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner." I had asked Preston to follow me on June 11 after I found deleted tweets which suggested the thesis, but the story took over a week to get published for reasons still unknown to me.
"At least three months before the revelation that former Representative Anthony D. Weiner was sending lewd messages and photos to women online, a small group of self-described conservatives was monitoring his exchanges with women on Twitter," Preston reported. "Now there is evidence that one or more people created two false identities on Twitter in order to collect information to use against him."
A Twitter user employing a fake name posed as a 16-year-old California high school girl in May and tried to get Mr. Weiner to be her prom date, according to people with knowledge of the communications and a review of documents. The person behind another Twitter account created under a fake name claimed to be her classmate and offered to provide the group with incriminating evidence about Mr. Weiner.
Mr. Weiner, who resigned on Thursday after admitting he had sent explicit photos and messages to multiple women on social media sites, had already been the subject of intense focus on Twitter by the conservative group, which calls itself the #bornfreecrew.
Four and a half months later, what Preston wrote remains largely the same: it still "remains unclear who is behind the fake Twitter accounts, why anyone was trying to pretend to be a 16-year-old high school girl looking for Mr. Weiner to be her prom date or why the user contacted members of the #bornfreecrew."
Preston dropped the story - I presume - because she was threatened with legal action by a woman in California who had the same name as the person who started the "fake" teen's Twitter account, and because she feared she was getting punk'd by someone like conservative prankster James O'Keefe III. Sources and bloggers have been menaced and threatened in the post-Weinergate period, but it hasn't received any media attention. I've been smeared and mocked by a hoaxer who worked on Democratic campaigns called Neal Rauhauser and conservative bloggers tied to Breitbart including Lee Stranahan and Patterico have sought my help then falsely accused me of crimes. No one seems to care since Weiner resigned, but there are still too many unanswered questions and although there are many whispers of police and FBI investigations there doesn't seem to be any proof that any are ongoing or ever existed.
On May 18, nine days before "Weinergate" officially began, Goatsred aka Redgoat aka Mike Stack sent a tweet to fake teen @Starchild111 asking her to Direct Message him.
The request to DM was sent after the fake teenage girl had an argument with a real teenage girl who also followed Weiner named Maggie Henning.
starchild111: Well @RepWeiner unfollowed me. That was a short time. I defended him from people. Some thanks he gives to his loyal followers.
starchild111: RT @[Ethel]: Funny that you said you had a crush on a married politician. Are you forreal?
Maggie Henning: I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING PSYCHO GIRL. stop tweeting about me.
Maggie Henning: Goodnight world, I love most of you<3
The odd thing about Henning's "I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING PSYCHO GIRL" is that a Topsy link shows that prior to that she sent an identical tweet as starchild111 on May 18 (and to herself?): maggiehenning: RT @maggiehenning: Funny that you said you had a crush on a married politician. Are you forreal?
In other words, the "real" Weinergate teen sent the same tweet as the "fake" Weinergate teen and then called her a "psycho" on the same day when many other Weinergate figures intersected in various, convoluted weird ways like the plot to the Academy-Award winning movie "Traffic."
These are all the public tweets by @RepWeiner sent on May 18, including the times:
9:58 AM via TweetDeck: The new SCOTUS conflict of interest forms were filed! #YesClarenceYouNeedToFileAlso
11:59 AM via TweetDeck: RT @CapitalTonight: AP: Pete King is considering a presidential run in 2012. #DamnThoseEndofTheWorldPredictionsMayBeRight
12:55 PM via TweetDeck: RT @NBCNewYork: King Leaves Door Open for Presidential Bid http://bit.ly/lB2hBN Ah, so there is a door! #ToAPaddedRoomPerhaps
8:55 PM via Twitter for BlackBerry®: Thurs 8:30 am on with Imus. On FoxBus #WrinkledUpOldFool.
(Note: Calling the host of a radio show a "wrinkled up old fool" 12 hours before an interview seems like a strange strategy...)
At his Facebook page, Weiner left the following message at 10:48 AM:
"For 13 years, Clarence Thomas “forgot” to report his wife’s income. He filed new financial disclosures this week, but hasn’t made them public. What’s he hiding now?
Pressure him to tell us the truth and make the filings public immediately at ConflictedClarenceThomas.com"
At 12:11 PM, Traci Nobles left the following public Facebook message (which was liked by 3 people): "done and done. I think he's hiding his teeny tiny balls from the Weiner. thanks ADW, for your haaaaarrd, hottttt work. keep doing your thang sexy beast!"
Traci Nobles claims her last contact with Weiner was on May 20 which is the same day he sent a bare-chested photo to Broussard & she sent him 5 pictures.
During a 6/17 NBC News Today Show appearance that took place after Weiner resigned - but seems to have flown under the radar - Nobles claimed that Weiner sent her the same underwear pic Broussard and Cordova were sent, along with the full monty picture also received by Broussard, that Andrew Breitbart "accidentally" leaked on shock jock show.
Nobles told the Today show she had no regrets: "It was more than just sexual. We exchanged music or just talked about life in general."
Their salacious interactions covered everything from sex and Weiner’s wife discovering his online dalliances to campaign strategy, finance and Democratic and Republican politics. Weiner also sent multiple explicit photos of his penis to Nobles via email and numerous sexual text messages in which he often refers to his penis in the third person.
He even sent some of the texts from public settings, like press conferences, his office and television appearances.
....
In all, her sexting correspondence with Weiner amounted to approximately 292 files and 359 megabytes of data, all of which she has in her possession. Buried in that mountain is the infamous picture of Weiner in his gray boxer shorts that was posted on Twitter and was initially claimed by Weiner to be the work of a hacker before he admitted it was sent to a 21-year-old via the social networking site.
For some reason, the article doesn't note the only exclusive screenshot NBC News had to prove Weiner sent a text from his office saying "oops, staff at the door."
"It changed my life," Nobles claimed about the sexting relationship she had with the married Weiner. "It made me who I am today."
Nobles, in the exclusive appearance that NBC News might have paid for - since she refused to cooperate with the Las Vegas newspaper that first broke the story and send them anything in addition to what her unnamed roommate sent via Facebook message or email (I'm waiting to hear from the article's author to see how it was sent for sure since the article says email) - strangely sat between two lawyers who seem extremely overqualified to be there just to make sure she got a chance to present her story. John Baker and Jason Slider (at least she wasn't chewing bubble gum like Broussard did in her ABC News interview).
why do you have two attorneys? what's the worry? what's the concern?
no worry. we're just here and, you know, to support her, to make sure that everything is taken care of and that she gets -- presents her side of the story and gets to tell the world what happened.
she's got an opportunity just to, as you put it, ann, to set the record straight . it's a great opportunity and she's taking advantage of that.
Nobles told the Today show that her last Facebook chat with Weiner was on May 20.
On May 26, Nobles left this public Facebook message on Weiner's page: "nice. balls. love em'. i would totally gavel you."
Another unexplained question is who sent "dirty emails" to Radar Online allegedly between Rep. Weiner and more importantly, how did they verify them?
6/10 Radar Online "exclusive":
A fifth woman, Traci Nobles, has been discovered to have had sexual communication with digital Don Juan, Rep. Anthony Weiner and RadarOnline.com has exclusively obtained emails between the two of them.
....
RadarOnline.com has confirmed the authenticity of the emails.
....
Nobles declined to comment when asked by RadarOnline.com.
On September 24, after I noted to Gennette Cordova via Twitter that Weiner spoke to her - and allegedly Ginger Lee - but not the women he actually sent explicit pictures and sexted with (Traci Nobles, Meagan Broussard and Lisa Weiss), she agreed that it was an "interesting point."
New York Times reporter Ashley Parker mysteriously interviewed Rep. Anthony Weiner on May 18 - a "sunny morning" at Coffee Shop, in Union Square - for a story never mentioned by the paper until it was published after the underwear tweet, but before Weiner resigned, on June 7.
The day after, on May 19, RepWeiner tweeted, "@ashleyrparker doing a story on my tweets for NYT. #PrintedWordIsDead at 9:52 AM from his Blackberry.
Also, on May 18, #BornFreeCrew member Mike Madden asked Goatsred in a tweet, "Did that thing ever surface? I gotta go to work."
In one of over thirty tweets Andrew Breitbart sent to me on August 10 in response to Weinergate questions, he told me that he personally called Broussard's intermediary and left a voice message, but he didn't specify if it was on May 18, the same day he was contacted.
At Soundbitten, Beato blogged:
In Twitter exchanges with Ron Brynaert on 08/10/11, Breitbart says that Broussard's intermediary contacted Breitbart "by email 1 week-plus before infamous RT. Then I called & left VM. He called next day. Took week to get to Megyn." (Source: Twitter).
Then he expands on his response and answers additional questions from Brynaert with this series of tweets: Tweet: "I've never met Megyn or her friend in person. Megyn doesn't seem political. Her friend may be. I didnt/dont care if he is or not." Tweet:: "Always said 'friend' of Meagan emailed in advance & we followed up. I don't know his name. But Meagan said she's friends w him." Tweet: "Don't remember his name. Once I was in contact with Meagan, he was disposable! Hope he doesn't take that personally!" Tweet: "I have no idea if he contacted me on May 18 because she asked him to. Didn't ask." Tweet: "1st time spoke to MB was FriJune3. Spoke to him SatMay28 for brief moment then on TuesMay31. Thats it. Never met either in person." Tweet: "He contacted me on 18th. We followed up but didnt take too seriously. Then @patriotusa76 RT triggered frantic calling of the guy." Tweet:"Limited resources. One of my trusted associates had convo. If he had delivered goods woulda been different story." Tweet: "No, just wrote to you we had contact between then. Not me. And was put in 'low priority' bin. Conspiracy that!"
After the New York Times finally published Parker's interview with Weiner, conservative pundit Michelle Malkin Tweeted, "NYTimes reporter: Hey, look, I sat on an intvu w/Rep. #skeevy for 3 wks. Guess it's safe to run now!"
"Before @repweiner was publicly caught sending 'the photo' @ashleyparker caught him here," NY Times reporter Jen Preston tweeted.
The New York Times should explain why they sat on the interview for so long.
Parker has ignored multiple questions I have asked her on Twitter about May 18, including the time she last saw Weiner, which is crucial since he reportedly called Broussard that afternoon from his New York office. If Weiner was hacked by political tricksters, it would be advantageous to have a reporter be able to vouch that he was in the city on the same day he was sending nude photos.
(Enormous Hat Tip to Greg Beato at Soundbitten who has been doing incredible work on Weinergate related to the mysterious unvetted Weiner girls and the actions of Andrew Breitbart. His constantly updating timeline is here: Weinerology Also, the messages by Maggie Henning were found by conservative blogger Prudence Paine.)
No comments:
Post a Comment