Rep. Anthony Weiner coached porn star Ginger Lee, one of the women with whom he had online exchanges, on what to say to reporters about their relationship, TMZ reports, citing several emails it said Weiner sent her.
Lee, also a model and stripper, was barraged with calls from reporters after Weiner first tweeted a shot of his crotch to another woman on May 28. TMZ said he emailed her on June 2:
"Do you need to talk to a professional PR type person to give u advice? I can have someone on my team call. [Yeah, my team is doing great. Ugh]."
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Weiner said in his mea culpa Monday that he didn't use any government resources to communicate with the women. It was unclear whether his "team" belonged to the New York Democrat's congressional staff.
TMZ cited another June 1 email: "The key is to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it. 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.'"
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He also suggested the Nashville-based Lee use her Southern charm: "And then maybe insert some y'alls in there."
His suggested statements to Lee were also notably self-aggrandizing:
"I have nothing to do with the situation involving Rep Weiner," he suggested she say, in a June 2 message cited by TMZ. "I follow his twitter feed. And for a brief time he followed me. Much has been made of the fact that I have posted about my admiration for Rep Weiner and his politics. All I can say about that is that I'm a fan of his. Rep. Weiner sent me one short direct message thanking me for following him. I have never met Rep. Weiner and he has never sent me anything innappopriate (sic) …"
Weiner then asked her if she felt comfortable with the proposed statement, asking: "How's it feel?"