An Expensive Lie: Weiner Campaign Allegedly Paid $45k to Find 'Hacker'

When the Weinergate scandal first broke at the end of May 2011, then-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) claimed that his social media accounts had been “hacked.” The left seized on Andrew Breitbart as the likely culprit. 

To prove what he knew to be a lie, Weiner then commissioned a private investigation by a law firm to investigate the hacking. The New York Daily News reported in Feb. 2012 that he had spent some $13,000 of campaign funds on a separate Manhattan-based private investigating firm. In a new report, the Daily News suggests that Weiner’s campaign had actually spent $45,000–at least–on private investigations.

The funds were never reimbursed to donors by Weiner’s congressional campaign committee. Separately, Roll Call reported that Weiner’s campaign was fined by the Federal Election Commission for failing to refund general election contributions after Weiner resigned and withdrew from the congressional primary.

Weiner admitted last week that he had continued intimate relationships through social media even after his resignation, and after telling the media that he had “changed” in the run-up to his mayoral campaign.