“It’s wrong on just so many levels,” said Melanie Sloan, director of the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“He’s wasting people’s hard-earned dollars on a wild goose chase and that’s outrageous,” she said. “It’s just another lie he told people. He knew all along who did it.”

Weiner spent the money from the campaign account he maintained to finance his congressional races. That committee remained active for two years after he resigned from Congress. Two weeks ago, he applied to the Federal Election Commission to shut it down. He never reimbursed donors for the costs of the “investigation.”