Anthony Weiner may face up to 2 years jail time in guilty plea to teen sexting charges

Former congressman Anthony Weiner's sexting problems may land him in jail

Published May 19, 2017 11:20AM (EDT)

 (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Ex-congressman Anthony Weiner pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he made sexual advances on a minor after he admitted to sending lewd messages to several women and girls.

The disgraced former Democratic rising star pleaded guilty to one federal count of transferring obscene material to a minor when he sent pictures of his genitals to an underaged girl. He faces roughly two years behind bars.

He will have to register as a sex offender, according to the Associated Press.

“I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse,” Weiner said in court.

 

Weiner's conduct was first exposed by Breitbart.com in 2011 after he accidentally posted a photo of his underwear-clad erect penis on Twitter. After initially claiming his account had been "hacked," Weiner admitted to it. He resigned from congress shortly thereafter.

Despite claiming he had changed his ways, Weiner was revealed to have sent other similar messages with women and girls. Last year, the Daily Mail revealed he had sexted with a 15-year-old girl for several months in 2015. That relationship is what eventually led to the current criminal charges against him.

After the FBI seized his computer, agents also found emails sent to Weiner's wife, top Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin, which had been inadvertently copied onto it.

Upon the discovery of the emails, James Comey, the FBI director at the time, sent a letter to Congress informing it of the finding. That letter soon became public and Comey was accused of tilting the 2016 presidential election to Clinton's opponent, Donald Trump, even though Comey later revealed that the discovered Abedin messages were duplicates.

Weiner is expected to face 2 years of jail time, according to New York media reports.


By Matthew Sheffield

Matthew Sheffield is a national correspondent for The Young Turks. He is also the host of the podcast "Theory of Change." You can follow him on Twitter.

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Anthony Weiner Hillary Clinton Huma Abedin James Comey