Rep. Weiner Hires Lawyer Over Tweet; Cyber War May Mean War
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne, thank you very much. We want to start with a bizarre controversy. Some are calling Weiner-gate. Congressman Anthony Weiner has hired an attorney to advise him on what to do next after a lewd photo of a man was sent from his Twitter account to a college student in Seattle. The photo showed a man from the waist down in his underwear with an apparent erection. The photo and tweet were quickly deleted. Representative Weiner is denying he posted the photo, and says it was a prank by a hacker. We caught up with the congressman again today to get some more answers, but this is what he said.</s>QUESTION: Aren't you concerned that someone is looking at your sensitive information?</s>REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: I'm going to return to working on the things I care about. I participated in the story a couple of days now, given comments on it. This is a distraction, and I'm not going to let it distract me.</s>QUESTION: Did the capitol police say they're looking into it?</s>WEINER: I put out a statement about that in the past couple days, I've put out a couple of statements. I mean, I'm trying to -- I'm trying the best to -- I just spent a couple days cooperating, and you know, trying to help you do your job, but at a certain point I'm going get back to work, and I think we have reached that point today.</s>QUESTION: This distraction might go away if you answer some of the -- some of the questions out there.</s>WEINER: I'm not going to answer that, I'm not going to answer that.</s>KAYE: Now, to answer part of that question for you, the capitol police and the FBI tell CNN they are not currently investigating the case. Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart got wind of the photo and broke the story on his Web site. Biggovernment.com is joining us now. Andrew, thanks for coming on the show to talk about this. Congressman Weiner says that his account was hacked, that this was a prank. So, I have to ask you, since you were first to break the news on your Web site. How did you find out about this?</s>ANDREW BREITBART, CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER, BIGGOVERNMENT.COM: It was on Friday evening, I live on the west coast, so sometime around 7:30 or 8:00 at night, I was checking my Twitter account, and somebody sent me the re-tweet. I clicked on it, saw that it was coming from Congressman Weiner's account. We did as much research as we could, it was a verified account of Congressman Weiner, and we followed the story throughout the night, and we decided to break the story at the point that Congressman Weiner announced on his Twitter account that his Facebook page had been hacked. The second that he -- that a sitting Congressman said that his social media had been hacked, it was truly a story, and it's been a wild three days.</s>KAYE: And the source of this photo was a conservative blogger, as well, named Dan Wolf. Do you know any idea -- have any idea how he got this photo, how he uncovered this photo? And did you know him before at all?</s>BREITBART: I didn't know him before. He was the one that tweeted it. He sent it -- he forwarded it through Twitter to many prominent people within the blogosphere, including Arianna Huffington and "The Huffington Post." I just happened to be at my kitchen island, and I saw it and so --</s>KAYE: What is your understanding though of how he discovered it?</s>BREITBART: I don't -- well, we have that exclusive at Biggovernment.com right now, but he has been monitoring rep Weiner for quite some time now because according to his theory, and I don't know him that well, he's been monitoring relationships that Congressman Weiner has been having with women, young women, who claimed to have relationships with him. I'm not saying what type of relationships, but people that rep Weiner's follows. Girls that are quite young, younger than the girl in question here, talk openly about rep Weiner who he follows these girls. So, that's where the story --</s>KAYE: All right. Those are definitely some -- those are some interesting allegations. We'll have to put those to the representative, he's not on the show now, to ask him about that. But I do want to ask you about the photo, because it was apparently sent to this woman -- 21-year-old Gennette Cordova. She issued a statement to "The New York Daily News" saying that she never met the Congressman, she simply followed him on Twitter, and she jokingly referred to him as her, quote, "boyfriend on a tweet." But take a look at the statement that she gave to the "New York Daily News" with me, she says, quote, "I do not have a clear understanding as to how or why exactly I am involved in this fiasco. She goes on to call all of this speculation and faulty allegations, saying my reputation has been called into question by those who lack the character to report the facts. Now, yet, a lot of conservatives like yourself, Andrew, seem to be implying a possible relationship between Cordova and the Congressman.</s>BREITBART: Well, actually, we never mentioned her name. We've made this about Congressman Weiner the entire time. It was Gawker, which is a liberal Web site, that named her, and she named Gawker by name for outing her. Salon's Joan Walsh, a left wing site, attacked us falsely for naming her. We have not made this about this woman whatsoever. This is about Congressman Weiner, who for over 72 hours allowed for people to believe that his Web site was hacked, which caused for this poor guy who discovered this thing to be accused of being a hacker, and he has gotten death threats. What has happened in the last 24 hours is that he's downgrading it to a prank. There's something fundamentally different between a prank and a hack.</s>KAYE: Do you have any evidence to show that this wasn't a hack or a prank?</s>BREITBART: A prank -- a prank is innocuous, a hack is criminal and malignant. We have called for an investigation to clear Wolf's name, because for the last 72 hours, the supporters of Congressman Weiner have accused him online, and many prominent ones including "The Daily Cause" (ph), of having hacked him. So, if there was in fact --</s>KAYE: So, what evidence is there that this wasn't a hack? I'm just asking you?</s>BREITBART: Well, why doesn't he want an investigation? He is saying it's a prank. What's a prank? How does he know the motivation? How does he know -- if he does -- prank implies he knows who the person is and that it was done in a light-hearted, innocuous fashion. A hack means that a sitting congressman who has national security issues has been hacked by both Facebook and Twitter. There should be an investigation. And the Democratic party was calling for a full-scale investigation into Mark Foley, when only text messages were exchanged between somebody. This is -- this is much more serious.</s>KAYE: So, you want the forensics tested, actually. What do you think really happened here?</s>BREITBART: I can't -- at this point, Weiner has created more questions for himself. I want there to be a full-scale investigation into this. I want the FBI or the capitol police to investigate this, because for 72 hours, by saying that it was a hack, the left wing blogosphere went nuts, and has accused many people on the right of having hacked Congressman Weiner's account.</s>KAYE: Well, he has -- he has lawyers looking into it. He has lawyers now looking into it, you have -- you're calling for an investigation --</s>BREITBART: Well, I don't trust -- I don't trust Congressman -- I don't trust Congressman Weiner's lawyers to exonerate wolf or other people out there who have been accused of hacking.</s>KAYE: I also want to ask you. I mean, you are a right wing blogger yourself, you were at the forefront of the Shirley Sherrod incident that when you -- when you published this edited version of her speech and weren't exactly forthcoming about that, so --</s>BREITBART: Yes, which -- which included the -- it included the redemptive arc.</s>KAYE: Wait. Let me finish my question. Why should we take your word on the case of Congressman Weiner?</s>BREITBART: Because the Shirley Sherrod case I had the redemptive arc in the video and my article said eventually her basic humanity informs her to help the white farmer. The media cut that story up to try and attack me, look at my 1,400 word original piece that said -- the NAACP was mentioned 17 times in that. Shirley Sherrod was mentioned four times in that. This was the last attempt to take me down, and it didn't work.</s>KAYE: All right. Well, still certainly a lot of questions out there surrounding this case. Andrew, we do appreciate you coming on and talking about it, and letting us know the trail of the information as best we can at this point. And we'll continue to follow it. Andrew, thank you.</s>BREITBART: Thank you.</s>KAYE: And for a better perspective on the legal side of this, let's bring in our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. Jeffrey, representative Weiner is a public figure, and Twitter is a public forum, what protections, if any, does he have when it comes to a case like this?</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I'll tell you one protection he has, Randi. He has me saying that what Andrew Breitbart was insinuating about him with young girls and stuff, is outrageous, and frankly, it's too bad that he got to say that stuff on CNN. Look, this is a light-hearted story. This is a silly little thing that happened. It's not a big deal. And to have him convert it into some sort of sinister activity and conspiracies and left and right, look, everybody knows that on the Internet, stuff happens.</s>KAYE: Right.</s>TOOBIN: And something happened with Anthony Weiner's account. It has nothing to do with the left or the right. It's just like a silly thing that happened.</s>KAYE: And that's why we were quick to point out that he was making these very strong allegations on our air, and with the representative not here to defend himself, we're going to have to ask him about that.</s>TOOBIN: It was terrible.</s>KAYE: But, again, what protections does he have?</s>TOOBIN: Well, I mean, look, Twitter is not a very secure environment. Twitter is -- you know, an example of social media where people, you know, talk back and forth and sometimes they do it in a light-hearted manner, but I think this case is a good illustration that you have to be careful, just like you have to be careful with anything on the Internet. You know, Wikipedia is a great thing, sometimes Wikipedia is wrong. Twitter is a great thing, sometimes the information is not reliable and doesn't even come from the people it appears to come from. That's the lesson here, and I think, you know, buyer and reader beware.</s>KAYE: But wouldn't it be easier -- I mean, we know he has hired a lawyer, but why not just go to capitol police and the FBI to investigate who hacked his account? I mean, from your perspective, is a lawyer the right way to go here or should there be an investigation and we can just put this to rest?</s>TOOBIN: Probably. But, you know, there's a famous expression. Don't make a federal case out of it. That strikes me as the appropriate reaction here. You know, no one was hurt, no one was injured, no one was horrified or shocked. There was no obscenity here, there was no -- nothing malicious. I mean, sure, if this continues, or if something really sinister comes out, then perhaps it calls for an investigation. I mean, I think Congressman Weiner is handling this in the appropriate way, as far as I can tell, which is basically treating it as kind of a joke. He said that, you know, now he's -- now that he's got this problem with this computer, he's worried that his blender is going to attack him. Although he's fairly confident that his toaster is on his side. I mean, I think that's the appropriate tone to take with this. And to turn it into something more than -- more than a mild prank, hack, whatever you want to call it, seems really excessive.</s>KAYE: So, play it down, and let the others play it up, I guess. All right, Jeffrey Toobin, appreciate your advice.</s>TOOBIN: Yes, I just don't think it's a big deal.</s>KAYE: All right, well we'll continue to with that along with you.</s>TOOBIN: OK, Randi. Very good. KAYE; Thank you, Jeffrey. Well, hackers have been around as long as computers themselves. And as the world has gotten ever more digitized, the prospects for mayhem or outright disaster have multiplied. It's a battle fought every day in cyberspace, but in the not too distant future, it may be fought in the real world with real military hardware. My colleague, Chris Lawrence, joins us from the Pentagon with more on this. Chris, tell us, what's being contemplated and why?</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Pentagon is in the final stages of putting together its sort of cyber security strategy, Randi. It's going to be released probably in the next two or three weeks. And basically, taken as a whole, as a part of U.S. strategy, this is basically saying that if the United States is attacked through a cyber attack, it may be so damaging that it would cause the United States to respond with military force. In other words, computer attack in, military force going out. In other words, if there was a cyber attack that caused a nuclear reactor to melt down and kill hundreds of people, there's -- what this is saying is, that's the same as if somebody blew up something outside and caused that same sort of damage at the reactor. Or if it they shut down an electrical grid, which cut a pipeline, they would say, well, that's causing the same sort of damage as a naval blockade. So, they're equating the damage that cyber attacks could potentially do an actual military attack, and basically saying that the U.S. has the option to respond in kind. The U.S. policy now, under the Obama administration, is at a military option on the table -- Randi.</s>KAYE: All right. Chris Lawrence for us at the Pentagon. Chris, thank you. And stay with us next hour when our stream team takes aim at military responses to virtual invasions. Can you really fight hackers with hell fire missiles? A former NATO supreme allied commander joins our panel at 2:50 Eastern time, only right here on CNN. Experts have been warning about a double dip in the housing market. Does the latest evidence prove them right? We'll tell you all about it, next.