Anthony Weiner cancels Wisconsin speech to Democrats

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) questions a witness at the U.S House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations about the health effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, September 8, 2006.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who has denied sending a lewd photo of himself to a 21-year-old female college student over his Twitter account, canceled a scheduled speech on Friday at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's state convention.

Wisconsin Democrats had touted the outspoken liberal congressman as a special guest speaker for the convention and "a champion of health care reform" in the U.S. Congress.

However, state Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski confirmed on Friday that Weiner's speech was canceled at the congressman's request.

A representative of Weiner was not immediately available to comment.

Weiner has said his Twitter account was hacked when a photo of a man in bulging boxer briefs was tweeted to a 21-year-old female college student in Washington state. The student has backed Weiner's account, saying she was "a fan" of the congressman but did not know him.

But Weiner was dogged all week by media outlets for more information, causing him to complain about the publicity and saying he did not want the hacked email to be a public distraction.

Weiner later told CNN that he could not be sure whether the photo was of him or not, saying any photo can be manipulated.

Weiner's office said the congressman had hired an attorney to advise him on whether or not he could press criminal charges as a result of the alleged hack.

(Reporting by David Bailey. Editing by Peter Bohan)