Weiner hires lawyer after lewd tweet photo

WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner says he's hired a lawyer to help him decide what course of action to pursue after a hacker sent a lewd photo from his Twitter account.

Dave Arnold, a spokesman for the New York Democrat, told the Washington publication Politico the congressman's staff is "loathe to treat" the matter as anything more than a tasteless prank "but we are relying on professional advice."

The attorney will counsel Weiner about "what civil or criminal actions should be taken."

The photo, sent Saturday night, was a tight shot of a man's underwear. Politico said a Seattle woman who allegedly was the intended recipient of the photo, told the New York Daily News she never saw the photo.

The college student said she had never been to New York or Washington and "there have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question, which had apparently been deleted before it reached me."