Disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner emerged from his Manhattan apartment in jogging clothes and a Mets cap to catch a subway train just hours after getting sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Monday.
The former politician ignored questions about his prison sentence from the press but paused briefly on the sidewalk to allow photographers to snap pictures and made a grim face at the cameras.
The 53-year-old declined to comment on his feelings about his prison sentence or where he would like to serve out his 21 months of jail time.
Weiner will have to register as a sex offender but declined to comment on how his family was handling the news. ‘Alright?’ he said, after a few seconds. ‘Okay, I don’t have anything to say.’
Weiner and his brother Jason, a Manhattan chef, ducked into the nearby subway station where the Weiner put on sunglasses before catching a train uptown.
The former congressman, who was convicted of sending obscene material to a 15-year-old girl, had changed out of the suit he wore to court and into a New York Citibikes t-shirt, an orange Mets cap and shorts.
Just a couple of hours earlier, Weiner sobbed in court as Judge Denise Cote handed down the sentence and ordered him to turn himself over to prison authorities on November 6 and pay a $10,000 fine.
Anthony Weiner was spotted hours after his sentencing on Monday emerging from his Manhattan apartment with his brother Jason, who is a Manhattan chef. The 53-year-old was sentenced to 21 months in jail for sexting a 15-year-old girl earlier that day
The former politician wore his wedding ring although he is in the midst of a contested divorce with his wife Huma Abedin, who is fighting for sole custody of their five-year-old son
Weiner ignored questions about his sentence but paused briefly for photos before putting on sunglasses to catch a train uptown with his brother Jason
One passerby on the sidewalk shouted ‘Weiner!’ and reached out to shake his hand, but most pedestrians seemed to ignore the one-time frontrunner for New York City mayor.
In the courtroom earlier that day, Weiner told the judge that he had hit ‘rock bottom’ last year when he decided to exchange sexually charged messages online with a 15-year-old high school sophomore.
Weiner’s relationship with the teen girl, which included explicit video chat sessions during which he encouraged the minor to undress and touch herself, was first reported by DailyMail.com last September.
The news prompted an FBI investigation into Weiner, during which investigators found emails on his computer between Hillary Clinton and his wife Huma Abedin.
This led the FBI to reopen its investigation into Clinton’s private email server just days before the election, a move that Clinton has blamed in part for her loss.
Weiner pleaded guilty to sending obscene material to the minor last May. His wife Huma Abedin filed for divorce the same day.
His attorneys had asked the court to sentence him to probation without jail time, arguing that he had suffered extrajudicial punishment because his crime had turned him into a political pariah.
They also said he has been in therapy for sex addiction and has seen an improvement in his behavior.
‘I focus on how I live my new, smaller, healthier life one day at a time. I was a very sick man for a very long time. I have a disease but no excuse,’ said Weiner in his statement to the court on Monday.
He also apologized to the victim and dabbed his face with tissues.
Just hours earlier, Weiner gasped and broke down as he was sentenced for sending obscene material to the minor as he looked teary eyed as he left court
Weiner shook and clutched a tissue as he said he had saved his remarks about his son until the end, knowing how emotional he would become. He said that he was finally teaching his son Jordan the right lessons. ‘I am living in amends to him,’ he said
The 53-year-old had shown a ‘dangerous level of denial’ and ‘lack of self-control’ that could put other teenagers at risk, prosecutors had earlier said. He was ordered to surrender by November 6 and to pay a $10,000 fine
Weiner was accused of asking the high schooler to strip naked and touch herself for him on Skype. The girl has not been named but has agreed to have her face shown (pictured)
Horror revealed: Weiner sent his victim obscene images and messages about what he would do to her if she was 18 in messages revealed by DailyMail.com
The distraught man was still wearing his wedding band when he was seen heading to court from the apartment he shares with estranged wife Abedin.
His brother, mother and father sat behind him in court but Abedin was not present.
Weiner appeared gaunt and shaken, smiling occasionally as he spoke with his attorneys ahead of the hearing, before reading from a prepared sheet of remarks.
With his hand and voice shaking, Weiner said that he had hit his ‘rock bottom’ but was grateful for it as it had led to his recovery.
‘I focus on how I live my new, smaller, healthier life one day at a time. I was a very sick man for a very long time. I have a disease but no excuse.’
He also said that he was ‘profoundly sorry’ to the victim.
He described his five-year-old son Jordan as his ‘salvation’ and said that he has betrayed Jordan’s ‘amazing mother’, Abedin.
Weiner said that he understood the prosecutors’ skepticism to whether he had changed. ‘I blamed others,’ he said. ‘I convinced myself that I wasn’t the problem.’
He added: ‘I’m an addict’, referencing how he had seen the qualities in his late brother, Seth, who passed away in 2000 but was unable to recognize them in himself.
The disgraced congressman said that he was going to therapy twice a week and attending meetings every day.
He shook and clutched a tissue as he said he had saved his remarks about his son until the end, knowing how emotional he would become. He said that he was finally teaching his son Jordan the right lessons. ‘I am living in amends to him,’ he said.
Weiner continued: ‘I victimized a young person who deserved better’ but added that he ‘know[s] my recovery is real’.
He acknowledged that through his actions he had ‘forfeited the right to the benefit of the doubt’.
The former congressman, who was convicted of sending obscene material to a 15-year-old girl, had changed out of the suit he wore to court and into a New York Citibikes t-shirt, an orange Mets cap and shorts
Weiner will have to register as a sex offender and declined to comment on how his family was handling the news. ‘Alright?’ he said, after a few seconds. ‘Okay, I don’t have anything to say’
In the courtroom earlier, Weiner told the judge he had hit ‘rock bottom’ when he decided to exchange sexually charged messages online with a 15-year-old high school sophomore
Weiner was pictured returning home with his attorneys after he was sentenced on Monday. The failed politician looked somber as he waited for the elevator. He bowed his head as a young woman looked on
Judge Cote said that she had read letters of support for Weiner written by his father and grandmother, along with two letters from the public, including one from a ‘concerned New Yorker’. Judge Cote described the letters as ‘extraordinarily brave’.
Amanda Kramer, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, made the case for the prosecution as to why Weiner should serve jail time and his request for probation be rejected. Kramer said that Weiner had ‘asked a real 15-year-old to show him her naked body and perform sexually’, calling his crime a ‘serious felony’.
She said that although the victim initially contacted Weiner, ‘her conduct doesn’t undermine his crime’. Judge Cote responded that she didn’t believe that Weiner was attempting to shift blame on to the victim.
Kramer continued: ‘What is required to pierce his denial and break the tragic cycle is a meaningful term of imprisonment.’
Weiner’s defense attorney, Arlo Devlin-Brown, said that the former congressman was ‘filled with regret’ for himself, his victim and his family members.
He said that after Weiner’s first indiscretions in 2011 forced him to give up his congressional seat, that he failed to realize there was a problem in his life. He went on to run for mayor of New York City.
‘New York is a forgiving place,’ Devlin-Brown said. However when it emerged in 2013 that Weiner had continued to have sexual contact with women online, his attempt at resurrecting his political career was over. ‘There are second acts – no third acts,’ Devlin-Brown added.
Devlin-Brown said that his client had a sickness and was highly compulsive in his sexual behavior. ‘Ending up here today was perhaps foreseeable,’ the attorney said – ‘to everyone but Anthony Weiner.’
When Judge Cote declared his sentence, Weiner bowed his head and put his face in his hands, as he heard the devastating news. After the judge left the bench, he sat in his seat for several minutes, continuing to cry
Weiner looked visibly shaken as he left the New York courtroom to head home to his apartment that he shares with his estranged wife
Weiner told the court: ‘I’m an addict. I victimized a young person who deserved better. I am not asking that I be trusted. I ask you for the opportunity on probation to keep my sworn oath’
The lawyer said that around the time he was in contact with the 15-year-old, he was also having contact with 19 other women online. Devlin-Brown emphasized that Weiner did not have an abnormal sexual interest in teenagers – and Judge Cote agreed with that finding.
The attorney asked the judge that Weiner be granted probation to continue with the treatment he was taking so seriously.’His sickness was a driver and he’s in recovery,’’Devlin-Brown said.
In the end, Judge Cotes disagreed with probation. In sentencing Weiner, Judge Cote said: ‘This is a serious crime that deserves serious punishment.’
She also said that the victim’s motives were ‘irrelevant’.
‘She is a minor, she is a victim,’ she said. ‘She is entitled to the law’s full protection.’
Cote acknowledged how committed Weiner was to recovery and said that his support of others with sexual problems could become a ‘true public service’.
‘He has made great strides but it will remain a struggle for years to come,’ she said.
When Judge Cote declared her sentence, Weiner bowed his head and put his face in his hands, as he heard the devastating news. After the judge left the bench, he sat in his seat for several minutes, continuing to cry.
His lawyer asked if Schuylkill in Pennsylvania could be considered because they don’t want him to be in maximum security, even if it is New York.
The judge asked if his defense attorneys wanted to recommend he stay in New York.
After a short discussion with Weiner, they said no.
The disgraced former congressman was seen leaving the garage of the apartment he shares with his wife Huma Abedin, who is divorcing him and was not present in court
His lawyer asked if Schuylkill in Pennsylvania (pictured) could be considered because they don’t want him to be in maximum security, even if it is New York
Weiner’s friend, Tom Duane, a former New York State Senator, gave him a hug in the hallway following the court hearing.
After Weiner’s sentence is served, he must undergo internet monitoring and must have no contact with his victim. He must also enroll in a sex-offender treatment program.
The government had urged the judge to put Weiner’s claims of a therapeutic awakening in a context of a man who made similar claims after embarrassing, widely publicized interactions with adult women in the past.
‘This is not merely a ‘sexting’ case,’ prosecutors wrote. ‘The defendant did far more than exchange typed words on a lifeless cellphone screen with a faceless stranger.
‘With full knowledge that he was communicating with a real 15-year-old girl, the defendant asked her to engage in sexually explicit conduct via Skype and Snapchat, where her body was on display, and where she was asked to sexually perform for him.
‘That offense – transmitting obscenity to a minor to induce her to engage in sexually explicit conduct by video chat and photo – is far from mere ‘sexting’.
‘Weiner’s criminal conduct was very serious, and the sentence imposed should reflect that seriousness.’
The document reveals that Weiner ‘has acknowledged an interest in legal, adult, teen-themed pornography’.
It said that his submission to the court that ‘he deserves a lighter sentence because the Minor Victim’s age meant nothing to him rings hollow’.
Weiner described his five-year-old son Jordan as his ‘salvation’ and said that he has betrayed Jordan’s ‘amazing mother’, Huma Abedin. Pictured: The family in August
Huma’s plea: Hillary Clinton’s top aide asked for the judge’s sentencing not to have ‘negative impact’ on their son when he sentences her pervert husband
Weiner said in a submission that he’s undergoing treatment and is profoundly sorry for subjecting the North Carolina high school student to what his lawyers called his ‘deep sickness.’
Prosecutors attacked some of Weiner’s arguments for seeking leniency and noted his full awareness that what he was doing was a crime, citing his co-sponsorship in January 2007 of a bill to require sex offenders to register their email and instant message addresses with the National Sex Offender Registry.
‘While the government does not contend that Weiner engaged in inappropriate sexual exchanges with other minors or that he is a pedophile, his professed ambivalence toward the minor victim’s age is belied by the defendant’s own statements to the court-appointed evaluator during his evaluation,’ they said.
Prosecutors said Weiner, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2005 and 2013, acknowledged to the evaluator an interest in legal, adult, teen-themed pornography.
The government said Weiner’s ‘widely-reported prior scandals’ were not criminal in nature and did not involve minors but should be considered at sentencing because they reveal a familiar pattern.
‘He initially denied his conduct; he suffered personal and professional consequences; he publicly apologized and claimed reform.
‘Yet, he has, on multiple occasions, continued to engage in the very conduct he swore off, progressing from that which is self-destructive to that which is also destructive to a teenage girl,’ prosecutors said.
They added: ‘Weiner’s demonstrated history of professed, yet failed, reform make it difficult to rely on his present claim of self-awareness and transformation.’
Defense lawyers had portrayed the girl as an aggressor, saying she wanted to generate material for a book and possibly influence the presidential election.
Tip of the iceberg: Weiner admits in court documents to sending sexts to hundreds of women since 2009 – with this one being revealed. He also spoke of his love for his son, who appeared in his sext (pictured)
Grooming: Weiner was revealed to have Skyped twice with the teenager and asked her to strip naked and touch herself. She revealed the messages to DailyMail.com
Prosecutors responded that Weiner should be sentenced for what he did, and the motives of the victim should not influence his punishment.
As part of a plea bargain, Weiner has agreed not to appeal any sentence between 21 and 27 months. Prosecutors said the sentence should fall within that span, and they noted that Probation Department authorities had recommended a 27-month prison term.
But last week his lawyers submitted a huge file calling for him to be spared jail.
It included claims that he has finally acknowledged the ‘illness’ which made him a serial sexter, and a plea from his wife, Huma Abedin, not to have their son hurt by his sentence.
He finally came clean about the extent and scale of his sexting habit – but came close to blaming his victim for the sexting scandal.
Weiner’s attorneys said he continually sexted with women between 2009 and 2016 and did not take therapy seriously at the time, despite the destruction to his political career and his public claims that he was in treatment.
The scale of his sexting means that the images which have emerged – one of him in bed in a state of arousal with his son beside him – hardly qualify as even the tip of the iceberg.
It says his ‘self-destructive compulsion’ was driven by mental illness, including a ‘mixed personality disorder’ that was recently diagnosed by a therapist.
Weiner’s memo also describes the 15-year-old girl as a manipulative fame-seeker – writing that she baited Weiner into exchanging sexual messages with her because she wanted to influence the U.S. presidential election.
The 15-year-old girl told DailyMail.com about her online affair with Weiner and described how he asked her to dress up in school girl outfits and participate in ‘rape fantasies.’
The former congressman told her in messages that she made him ‘hard’ and said he wanted to ‘bust that tight p***y so hard and so often that you would leak and limp for a week.’
The sexting scandal has been toxic not just for Weiner but for Abedin, who is now divorcing him and seeking custody of their son, Joshua, five.
The judge hearing their contested divorce case told the couple: ‘I certainly would encourage you to try to work out a plan together with your attorneys’ assistance.
‘It certainly would be better for your son if you could do that. It would save you a lot of stress. Hopefully the financials can be worked out amicably as well.’
The couple’s divorce is consented as Abedin is seeking full custody of their child. A judge told them that he ‘encourages’ them to ‘try to work out a plan together’ for the sake of their son
Weiner’s messages set off a bombshell chain of events which led to Hillary Clinton – Abedin’s boss – having her emails re-investigated by the FBI and the move announced just days before the election.
In the 68-page memo, Weiner’s legal team admits that in early 2016 the former congressman was exchanging thousands of messages a month with ‘dozens’ of women he met online
Both of their lawyers asked for privacy in the matter, but their attempts to keep their separation under wraps has not been successful.
Abedin stood by Weiner through recurrent sex scandals that destroyed his career.
In the 68-page memo, Weiner’s legal team admits that in early 2016 the former congressman was exchanging thousands of messages a month with ‘dozens’ of women he met online, including at least 1,500 messages with one middle-aged woman over the course of just two months.
It also set off a bombshell chain of events which led to Hillary Clinton – Abedin’s boss – having her emails re-investigated by the FBI and the move announced just days before the election.
Abedin was said to be devastated after hearing the news of the re-opened investigation.
‘When we heard this, Huma looked stricken,’ wrote Clinton in her new book What Happened. ‘Anthony had already caused so much heartache. And now this.’
Abedin told Clinton: ‘This man is going to be the death of me,’ before bursting into tears.
Clinton says the announcement of the new investigation, made by then FBI director James Comey, was one of the reasons she lost to Donald Trump.
The failed presidential candidate said her long-time aide’s anguish ‘broke my heart’ and made her determined to stand by Abedin despite the damage to her campaign.
But despite a mounting list of who she blames for her loss, Clinton has never named Weiner as one of the reasons.
He had been a part of the Clinton camp until his first sexting disgrace. She suggested he date Abedin and her husband Bill married the couple – although no photograph of him performing the ceremony has ever been made public.