An X-rated photo sent by Rep. Anthony Weiner to a Texas woman last month that has surfaced on the Internet is exposing the embattled congressman to further personal embarrassment and increased pressure to resign.
Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who first published details of Weiner's secret double life on Biggovernment.com, showed the photo on his smartphone to hosts of the Sirius XM radio program "The Opie and Anthony Show" Wednesday during an in-studio interview.
Snapshots of Breitbart's phone displaying the erect penis later appeared on the website Gawker, though it's unclear how they were obtained. Breitbart, who had previously said he would not release the photo, apologized for the leak, which he called unintentional.
ABC News independently obtained a copy of the same explicit image from Meagan Broussard, one of the women with whom Weiner had risque online chats. Email records show Broussard received the photo, along with several others, on May 18 from an email address used by Weiner.
On June 6, the day Weiner confessed to having "inappropriate" online relationships with various women, there were just 120 Democratic tweets -- about 30 percent less than two Mondays before. Among Republicans, there were 338 tweets, representing an 18 point drop.
There's no proof that the decline in tweets was related to Weiner's Twitter scandal.
It's clear, however, that as lawmakers integrate social media into their regular communications, they're still grappling with the risks. Of the 535 members of Congress, all but a handful use Twitter, CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports, and Weiner certainly isn't the first to flub up on the site. Even when lawmakers deal with controversy unrelated to the Internet, reporters and pundits have learned to track that lawmaker's tweets for developments in a story.
Weiner, usually a prolific tweeter, hasn't tweeted since June 1. After quickly deleting the message that got him into hot water, he continued to use the social media site for a of couple days, while curious Twitter users started "following" him. Before the scandal, Weiner had around 40,000 followers; he now has more than 75,000.
Meanwhile, while many were initially reluctant to comment, a growing number of lawmakers are now calling on Weiner to resign. At least six Democrats in Congress are calling on him to step down, including Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who also announced last night he is donating to charity the $5,000 he received from Weiner's campaign committee.
"His actions have disgraced the Congress," Donnelly said in a statement. "Everyone should be focused on jobs and the economy and his refusal to do the right thing is a distraction.
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