Weiner's Porn Pal Goes Public, Reveals Congressman Told Her to Lie

Onetime stripper turned pornographic actress says New York politico advised her to tell reporters, "I don't know him and have never met him"

As usually happens in anything that has the word "gate" for a suffix, it's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover-up.

So it goes for New York congressman Anthony Weiner, who's found himself in quite a pickle after accidentally tweeting a sexually suggestive photo to one of his followers and then decidedly covering it up for a week until yesterday's teary-eyed press conference confession.

Now, his problems are only growing as news comes that one of his sexting buddies is a former porn star and that he told her to lie on his behalf.

Onetime stripper turned pornographic actress Ginger Lee revealed to TMZ a series of emails she alleges Weiner sent her suggesting a response to reporters' inquiries that she might have been on the receiving end of his online come-ons.

And making matters worse (not to mention fueling speculation he might have abused the authority of his office), the Democrat offered some crisis management help from a member of his "team," though whatever he meant by that is debatable.

"Do you need to talk to a professional PR type person to give u advice," wrote Weiner in an email dated May 28, the day conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart published a story about a lewd twitpic of a man in underwear's bulging package the rep sent a 21-year-old Seattle woman. "I can have someone on my team call. (Yeah my team is doing great. Ugh)."

So great that after yesterday's admission that he was the one who sent the picture (which he quickly deleted) and not a hacker as he originally claimed, Weiner now faces a House Ethics investigation. Aside from apologizing to his wife and colleagues, the politician also pledged to cooperate fully with the probe, though he stated that he has no plans to resign.

By the looks of his exchanges with Ginger, they're gonna have a lot to examine, including whether he meant someone from his "team" was a congressional staffer charged with cleaning up the boss's mess.

"The key is to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it," Weiner wrote Lee in an email on June 1. "Have a couple of iterations of: 'This is silly. Like so many others, I follow Rep. Weiner on Twitter. I don't know him and have never met him. He briefly followed me and sent me a dm saying thank you for the follow. That's it.'"

For good measure, since Ginger hails from the South, Weiner added: "And then maybe insert some y'alls in there."

A day later, the congressman sent her a possible statement clearly meant to throw the press off his trail, concluding with, "I have never met Rep. Weiner and he has never sent me anything innappopriate [sic]."

He then asked Lee how she felt about his suggested statement lie.

Meanwhile, the original recipient of Weiner's crotch shot, 21-year-old journalism student Gennette Cordova, told the New York Post that she thinks the pic was meant for Lee and ended up in her Twitter account by accident.

"Her name is Ginger—it makes sense he might have mixed us up," she told the paper, referencing the fact that two of the first three letters of their names are the same.

Calling out the media for taking away her privacy, Cordova described herself as "collateral damage" and confessed that she just wants "this to be over."

Given the other women now stepping forward, that scenario isn't likely.

Megan Broussard, a 26-year-old single mom from Texas, gave dozens of emails, photos, Facebook messages and cell phone call logs dating back to April 20 to ABC News, which aired an interview with her yesterday in which she claimed, like Lee, to also have had an electronic liaison with the progressive hero.

"He was eager to hear if I wanted him or thought that he was attractive," Broussard said in the sit-down.

The aspiring nurse, who it's worth noting was paid by ABC for the rights to the photos,  added that she initially shared her story with Breitbart's biggovernment.com website in order to preempt her being outted by someone else.

At his press conference, Weiner confirmed the virtual dalliance with Broussard and five others, a story that dismayed his good pal, Jon Stewart, who has taken heat from critics for supposedly going, um, soft on him.

"The most upsetting thing about having a friend caught up in the scandal of this nature is finding out (a) he's packing jumbo heat and (b) that he's ripped," quipped Stewart on last night's show before moving on the other political sex scandal du jour: John Edwards.

You get the feeling, Jon, that more Weiner text buddies will be coming out of the, uh, woodwork?