Did Anthony Weiner Commit a Crime?

It’s the biggest sex scandal of the week, but is it a sex crime?   New photos surfaced on TMZ Monday, showing Congressman Anthony Weiner taking semi-naked pictures of himself with his Blackberry in the mirrors of a Congressional gym. Certainly stupid, possibly pathological.  But were any of the Congressman’s actions criminal?

Professor Howard Ellerman of Folsom Lake College had a good analysis on Weiner’s reckless sexting. Check out his full blog here.  Here’s an excerpt:

Cyberstalking or sending pornography to children. If any of the women he was conversing with was under 18, criminal cyber-stalking laws would come into play. Ignorance of their age is not relevant.

Using federal resources for personal use. If that is Weiner’s congressional office in the photos, or computers at the office or phone lines were used, anything but de minimus use of them for personal use would violate federal law. There is no possible way to define these actions as constituent services, given their purely private nature and the fact that the participants were not, as far as we can tell, voters in his district.

Lewd Conduct. There are state statues that variously criminalize the depiction or showing of an erect penis in public, even if it is covered.  New York and D.C. law would come into play. Further, there is an allegation that there is another picture out there of an explicit nature; that picture would be subject to the same state laws. However, both crimes require a victim, and no one here seems to be complaining about receiving the pictures.

Lying to Federal Investigators in the context of an investigation is a violation of federal law and a felony — just ask Martha Stewart, who served jail time for it. It looks like Weiner was careful to avoid asking for a federal investigation based on his lies; time will tell if in private conversations with Capitol police or the FBI he lied. If he did, it’s a crime.