Anthony Weiner. Image by Getty Images

Anthony Weiner Image by Getty Images

Former congressman Anthony Weiner was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison for exchanging lewd messages with a North Carolina teenager.

Weiner, who represented New York as a Democrat and later ran for New York City mayor, was felled by a series of sexting scandals—the worst of which occurred last year as he was prosecuted for sending obscene photos to a minor.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Weiner read a statement before the sentencing referring to himself as “a very sick man.” He had pled guilty in May, asking along with estranged wife Huma Abedin that he be spared prison.

Abedin, a top aide to former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, filed for divorce after his guilty plea.

Weiner’s attorneys had implied that his teenage accuser might have had political motives in exposing him for his sexting—a charge that prosecutors used to argue that Weienr was not owning up for his actions.

“He initially denied his conduct, he suffered personal and professional consequences, he publicly apologized and claimed reform,” the prosectors wrote in a statement. “Yet he continued to engage in the very conduct he swore off.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount