Anthony Weiner Pleads Guilty In Sexting Case. Says He Has ‘Sickness’

Anthony Weiner Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman May 19, 2017

Anthony Weiner Image by Getty Images

A tearful Anthony Weiner admitted on Friday to transferring obscene material in the case of his sex-msssaging scandal with an underage teen.

The embattled former Democratic congressman entered a guilty plea at a Manhattan federal court. He pled guilty to one charge of transferring obscene material to a minor. “I am guilty, your honor,” Weiner said, and then, with tears in his eyes, added: “I accept full responsibility for my conduct, I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse.”

As part of the plea deal, Weiner agreed to a sentence of 21-27 months in prison and to registering as a sex offender. He was then released on bail until his September 8 sentencing.

The charge relates to Weiner’s “sexting” scandal in which he exchanged sexually explicit text messages with a 15-years old girl last year. Weiner was married at the time to Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Hillary Clinton and the FBI investigation into his sex messaging led to claims, that were later dismissed, regarding classified information in emails shared by Clinton with Abedin.

Weiner, 52, resigned from Congress in 2011 after a previous “sexting” case was revealed. He later ran a failed campaign for mayor of New York.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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