Just a few weeks after some news outlets belatedly noted that Lisa Weiss apologized to former Congressman Anthony Weiner and his wife last September again for her role in sexting scandal, Weiner deleted that Facebook account.
I reported last July that it seemed odd Weiner was using the Facebook account he abandoned in 2010 - except to exchange sexting messages with Weiss and a few others - instead of the newer one he used throughout 2011 for official business, after he changed his profile picture at the old one, which has now been scrubbed. He also removed a message at his old Facebook account which implied he had been hacked. Weiner's newer Facebook account is still active, but hasn't been updated since May 30, 2011.
In other weird Weiner news, he made a strange tweet "Llp@" on February 4 and he apparently began following the CBS drama series "The Good Wife", which is about how a spouse deals with the aftermath of a sex scandal. After getting out of prison for political corruption, former state's attorney Peter Florrick is currently bidding to become governor of Illinois on the popular, critically acclaimed TV show. As I reported in May of 2012, the office for Friends of Weiner moved from Forest Hills, Queens to Manhattan, which seemed to signify that Weiner was contemplating a political comeback.
9/9/12 UPDATE
Former Congressman Weiner changed his profile picture on the Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151155759312258&set=a.438452967257.258129.809897257&type=1) he stopped using for official business in November of 2010 at around 11 AM on September 9, 2012.
The new profile picture is the posed shot with his wife and baby that appeared in the July 18, 2012 edition of People Magazine (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20612678,00.html).
Weiner also removed the May 30, 2011 note - as shown in a screenshot below - implying he was hacked and the "going out of business" note he posted on November 24, 2010, after he switched to the Anthony D. Weiner Facebook account.
Original article follows:
"Anthony Weiner is back on Facebook," Zeke Miller reported for BuzzFeed one week ago, after Andrew J. Hawkins @andyjayhawk - a political reporter for Crains New York - had tweeted that the former congressman "started using Facebook for iPhone" 37 minutes ago, which would have been around noon on July 14. Hawkins knew the exact time the account was linked to Weiner's iPhone because he noticed it on his "Facebook feed".
This is what it looked like a year ago:
"We are having a big 'going out of business' sale on this page," Weiner wrote on November 24, 2010. "But we have double coupons and huge discounts on a far better site. Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/AnthonyDWeiner. ill be posting there. so this one may get a little dusty."
According to reports - and one of my sources who sexted with Weiner - the old account was used by Weiner in 2011 strictly to speak to his female admirers (it's possible Weiner used his older account to speak to other people, but none have come forward). My source told me that she never exchanged any communications with Weiner on his newer Facebook account which contains his middle initial "D". Also, he ignored her pleas to contact her after the scandal broke out.
Weiner abandoned both accounts on May 30, 2011, but he only left a message referring to his hacking at his older account, which appears to have been unnoticed by the press.
"Hello friends," Weiner wrote on May 30, 2011 in his first message at his old Facebook account in six months. "I know this page has been dry for a while, but if you've gotten any odd emails, chats or notices from here recently, drop me a note. And thanks for supporting me over at our fully jazzed page linked above."
Since the message was left before he admitted to sexting a week later, Weiner - perhaps - was thinking of pretending that the older account had been hacked.
In January, I asked Facebook a number of questions regarding both of Weiner's accounts and their policies - in general - when someone claims to be hacked.
To whom it may concern,"Thanks for your inquiry," a manager from Facebook's Public Policy Communications sent me an email by iPhone - months later - on May 13. "We'll decline to comment."
I'm a freelance journalist working on an article related to the Congressman Anthony Weiner scandal. I used to be the executive editor for www.rawstory.com and helped provide research for a New York Times story last summer on the scandal.
I have a few questions that I'm hoping someone can answer at Facebook.
On May 28, 2011 Ginger Adams Otis at The New York Post reported,"Anthony's accounts on both Facebook and Twitter were hacked," said spokesman Dave Arnold.
............
Weiner, who represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn, got a message about a week ago from Facebook alerting him that his password might have been tampered with, Arnold said. But the warning was ignored, granting the hacker carte blanche to hijack Weiner's online identity.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/undies_in_twist_over_weiner_wiener_HznNI7XvjWgn9Lm2Xuq5pK#ixzz1kV1Y9TtH
Is there any way I can confirm that Rep. Weiner and/or his office received such a message from Facebook in the last week or two of May?
I'm curious why if this wasn't true no one from Facebook denied it.
Were any hacking investigations launched after Weiner's claims hit the airwaves?
Did Weiner contact Facebook to probe or vice versa after Weiner's spokesman mentioned the hacking?
Did the Secret Service or FBI or any other law enforcement agencies contact Facebook to probe the claim before or after the news hit the press?
If there was such a probe, has it ended or is it ongoing?
What does Facebook normally do when a celebrity claims that their account was hacked? I would assume it would be a black eye for the company, and you would want to ensure that the claim was true. Have there been circumstances when you probed such a claim and found no proof of it?
Would Facebook ever consider taking legal or criminal action when a false hacking claim is made?
Approximately how many confirmed Facebook hackings occurred in 2010. How many reported? Does Facebook keep track of such events (obviously, I'm assuming you do)?
Thanks,
Ron Brynaert
Weiner didn't start publicly posting on Facebook until August 17, 2010 - which may be after he allegedly started conversations with two women: Lisa Weiss and Traci Nobles.
As noted by journalist Greg Beato's Weinerology timeline, Nobles sent Weiner the message, "Sup sexy?" in August of 2010, according to a screenshot published at the The Las Vegas Sun on June 8, 2011.
Demirjian responded by email,
"It's because of the picture of her that's featured in the conversation. The thumbnail didn't match the profile picture of Nobles that was up at the time. But she briefly accepted my Facebook friend request the day the screen shot was sent (that's what let me pull enough vital stats about her to verify thru official registers that I was talking to a real person). If you clicked on her album of profile pictures to see her history, however, those were dated, and the one that appeared in her conversation with Weiner had, if memory serves me correctly, been put up in August and then replaced later that month with the next in sequence. But because Facebook profile pictures are moveable once they are posted, and the date registered on them is the date they're uploaded, I couldn't be 100% sure. The dates of her profile pictures were all in sequence, and she had enough of them (more than one per month, I believe) that it seemed unlikely she'd have re-cycled an old shot. Plus the placement of the picture in the queue meant she would have had to cycle through and re-select every one of the intermediary pictures (between the one in question and the most recent) again to keep the order looking as it did, had re-used the picture. So it seemed a pretty safe guess -- but without a hard date on the conversation it wasn't enough to be totally sure -- hence the 'appears to date from August.'""Is it actually you?" progressive blackjack dealer Lisa Weiss asks Weiner, initiating a Facebook correspondence with the newly married congressman," Beato notes on his Weinerology timeline, linking to RadarOnline's Facebook transcript.
RadarOnline's Dylan Howard reported, "The woman says she has 200 sexually explicit messages from Weiner from a Facebook account the Democratic politician no longer uses."
However, Weiss has argued that most of the messages were not "sexually explicit."
RadarOnline's June 6, 2011 article continued, "Star and Radar have confirmed Weiner's sexting messages originated from a Facebook account he used regularly until November 24, last year and recently abandoned. (A source close to Weiner verfied that he used that page.)"
"Since, he's redirected his legion of 44,144 supporters to a second and 'official' Facebook presence, specifically designed for public figures," Howard added.
The ABC News scandal timeline links to both Weiner Facebook accounts, with regards to his communications with Meagan Broussard. Weiner apparently friended Broussard from his abandoned account after she left message on his newer Facebook account.
April 20, 2011There were about 10 comments left by Traci Nobles on Weiner's public Facebook account in late October and November of 2010 that were sexually suggestive which others complained about.
• Meagan Broussard (MB) comments on link on Rep. Anthony Weiner (AW) Facebook page: "hotttt," she wrote.
• AW Facebook profile "friends" MB; she accepts.
Broussard said the two began talking "every single day, multiple times of day" via Facebook chat, often via smartphone.
"Word Weiner! Kick some ass! Is this a live, nude, chat"? Traci Nobles joked on October 28, 2010 six minutes after Weiner mentioned that he was "hosting a live chat over on Daily Kos."
A day later, after Nobles wrote, "Word Weiner! How BIGGGG?," another Weiner Facebook follower responded, "Traci, That's very childish, how old are you, are you old enough to be on facebook?"
"They can't all be blessed with those balls, unfortunately for us!" Nobles wrote on November 3, 2010. On November 10, she wrote "Word Weiner! I'm in, all day, EVERYDAY! And if by some chance they do come to the table... can I sit in your lap? I love a good tough Weiner! Kick ass:)" and "Ahhhhhhhhh, if only Obama had those super-sized Weiner balls! A girl can dream. Keep it fired up Weiner! I heart you!!" on November 12, 2010.
In response to the "sit in your lap" comment, another Weiner follower complained, "ew! restrain yourself woman this is a public page!!"
On November 16, 2010, Nobles wrote her most explicit message yet, "Thanks for the post weiner and balls. how excellent that Andy may have had( even if for a instant) to worry about what the fuck he would do for 28 days without coverage. keep on keepin on 'weiner and balls'! MUAW! Luv u"
Eight days later on November 24, 2010, Weiner abandoned this account, announcing a big 'going out of business' sale on this page.
Strange that there would be new activity on an abandoned account Weiner seemed to only use for sexting.