Porn Star: Weiner Asked Me to Lie, Should Quit
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Porn star Ginger Lee said Wednesday that disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner asked her to lie about their online relationship, and he should resign.
At a news conference in New York with her attorney, Gloria Allred, Lee said Weiner asked her during a phone conversation that took place on June 2 to lie when questioned publicly about the contacts.
"I think Anthony Weiner should resign because he lied to the public and the press for more than a week," Lee said. "It might never have turned into this if he had told the truth, but he kept lying."
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Weiner, a married New York Democrat, admitted last week to conducting inappropriate communications online and by phone with a half dozen women over the past three years. He said he met the women through social networking sites but never met them in person.
The disgraced congressman has so far refused to resign despite mounting pressure to do so, including from within his own party. But he has taken a two-week leave of absence and is said to be considering his options with his wife, Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who just returned from an overseas trip.
Allred said Lee initially was just a political supporter of Weiner's, particularly on the subjects of health care policy and Planned Parenthood. In March, she posted a supportive statement about him on her blog. Shortly thereafter, Weiner contacted Lee via Twitter.
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Allred says Lee and the embattled congressman exchanged about 100 messages until about two weeks ago.
During the news conference, Lee told a room packed with members of the media that once the scandal broke she turned to Weiner for advice on how to handle it.
"I put out a three-sentence communication that he told me to say," she said. "Once it got to a point that he lied on national television, then I knew that anything I said after that would have to be either a lie or an admission. I didn't want to do either."
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"On June 2, he called me and told me what to say and do and how to deal with the mounting pressure from the press and how to handle it. He told me if neither of us said anything over the weekend the story would calm down and die. ... I knew that I couldn't lie for him, but I couldn't be the one who kicked him under the bus."
After Lee began receiving threats from an unnamed person online who threatened to release an unauthorized statement about the scandal from Lee, the former porn star she reached out to Allred, a celebrity attorney.
During their online communications, Weiner told Lee of a possible impending Twitter scandal, Allred said.
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"He did suggest in his earlier emails that he was aware that a potential Twitter sex scandal might occur and that conservatives were behind it," Allred said. "Nevertheless, even with this awareness, he continued to email Ginger and even joked about it with her."
During the news conference Allred read some of the online communication sent from Weiner to Lee, who is single and no longer working in the porn industry. She is currently working as a "featured dancer" while studying to be a real estate agent, Allred said.
After communicating through Twitter in March, by early April, Weiner and Lee were speaking via email.
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In many emails, Weiner discussed his "package," she said.
According to Allred, Weiner wrote Lee, "Alright, my package and I are not going to beg. We both see the hazard of going down the path of comparative sexiness."
In another email also read at the news conference, Weiner wrote, "You aren't giving my package due credit."
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In yet another, Allred said Weiner wrote, "I have wardrobe demands, too. I need to highlight my package."
Lee said neither she nor Weiner sent photos of themselves during their communications.
"I did not send photos to him or receive any from him. Anytime that he would take our communication in a sexual direction, I did not reciprocate," she said.
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Lee will testify truthfully if called before the House ethics committee, Allred said. "She will also provide all of her communications to and from the congressman to the committee."
Lee is one of the six women Weiner admitted sending raunchy online messages to. Her news conference keeps the scandal in the news, to the dismay of House Democrats who fear that "Weinergate" is overshadowing their political message. Democratic caucus members met behind closed doors Tuesday for their regular party meeting, but they opted against taking action against Weiner, hoping he'll step down soon on his own.
Each day that passes has brought new revelations in the scandal, which began with Weiner accidentally making public a Twitter photo of his bulging crotch and then falsely claiming that his account had been hacked as part of a prank. He finally came clean after more than a week of aggressive lying.
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Last weekend, FoxNews.com first reported that Delaware police were investigating messages that Weiner sent to a 17-year-old student. Weiner and the girl's family have said no inappropriate messages were exchanged.
FoxNews.com's Stephen Clark contributed to this report.