Although conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart initially promised to keep the most explicit picture of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) to himself -- barring certain actions by Weiner -- an alleged picture of Weiner's naked, erect penis nonetheless leaked out this morning.
During an appearance on Sirius XM Radio's notoriously raunchy program The Opie and Anthony Show Wednesday, Breitbart reportedly showed the radio shock jocks the image that was saved on his iPhone. Though they now claim that they retrieved a still of the phone from a videotape of the show and that Breitbart didn't allow them to photograph it, the original image, now removed from Yfrog, showed a thumb in the corner of the lens, as though it was taken from a cell phone camera. Yfrog was the image-sharing service to which Weiner sent the "joke" photo of him in his boxers that started the entire scandal.
The show Tweeted the photo to its official account and brought it to the attention of the gossip sites Gawker and WWTDD. The now-removed image [NSFW] is still available at Gawker.
At a press conference called by Weiner Monday, Breitbart admitted that he had been given a more explicit photo of Weiner, but said he was trying to do the "right thing" by not releasing it.
The conservative provocateur told NBC's Matt Lauer Tuesday that he would release the photo "if Anthony Weiner decides to make it a jihad against me."
"I don't think I want to put his family through that type of thing," Breitbart said. "I could put that out there and his career would have been over today."
For his part, Weiner has thus far refused to resign, but has not commented on the release of the latest photo.
UPDATE: Breitbart told Fox News that he is "mortified" that the picture is now available. He says that "Opie" snapped the picture without permission and called it "a complete violation of trust."
Additional reporting by David Edwards.
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