Anthony Weiner is to be sentenced tomorrow for sexting a 15-year-girl and persuading her to get naked for him on Skype.
The scandal-hit politician, 53, could face more than two years in jail for sending obscene material to the teen in a case that may have also have played a role in costing Hillary Clinton — former boss of Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin — the presidential election.
‘This is not merely a ‘sexting’ case,’ prosecutors wrote to the judge. ‘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.
Anthony Weiner (pictured in Manhattan Civil Court for a divorce hearing with wife Huma Abedin on September 13) is due to sentenced tomorrow in his teen sexting case
Prosecutors are demanding Judge Denise Cote sentence him to between 21 and 27 months in prison (in court on September 13 for his divorce hearing)
The scandal-hit politician, 53, could face more than two years in jail for sending obscene material to the teen (pictured).
‘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’.
Federal prosecutors have asked for a sentence of between 21 and 27 months behind bars because of the seriousness of the crime.
The prosecutors’ note reveals that Weiner ‘has acknowledged an interest in legal, adult, teen-themed pornography’.
But Weiner’s attorneys contend he is a changed man who has finally learned his lesson, calling his compulsive sexting a ‘deep sickness’ best treated without time behind bars.
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.
The memo also suggested Weiner himself was a victim of the scandal, saying the North Carolina high school student initiated contact with him because she ‘hoped somehow to influence the U.S. presidential election’ and write a tell-all book.
Some legal observers doubt the wisdom of the defense in questioning the girl’s motivations.
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
Horror revealed: Anthony Weiner sent his victim, 15, obscene images and messages about what he would do to her if she was 18 in messages revealed by DailyMail.com
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.
The strategy ‘is fraught with peril since an attack on a victim can be read by the judge as undermining the defendant’s claim that he has accepted full responsibility,’ said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor.
He added that he expects Weiner to get jail time, ‘given the nature of the charges and the lack of any real mitigating factors here.’
Incredibly, despite his infidelities, his estranged wife Huma Abedin is now asking the court to go easy on Weiner in order to reduce the impact on their five-year-old son, Joshua.
Abedin, who filed for divorce last May, told the federal court a light sentence would be in the best interests of the couple’s young son Joshua.
The sentencing will be the latest chapter in the spectacular downfall of Weiner, a once-promising politician and half of an up-and-coming Washington power couple.
The trouble began in 2011, when an explicit photo of Weiner, then a congressman representing part of New York City, sent from his Twitter account became public.
He first claimed his account had been hacked but later resigned after admitting he’d had explicit online contact with at least a half-dozen women.
Weiner tried to resurrect his career by running for mayor in 2013 and surged to the lead in the polls. But once again, more racy online messages, where he used the cheesy moniker ‘Carlos Danger,’ surfaced to doom his candidacy and open the door for the then-little-known Democrat who would go on to win, Bill de Blasio.
His stunning downfall in that campaign was captured in the behind-the-scenes documentary ‘Weiner,’ which featured a memorable scene of Weiner and his wife alone in a conference room staring at each other in what a New York Times review called ‘the longest and most painful onscreen marital silence this side of an Ingmar Bergman film.’
In the end, the most significant impact of Weiner’s woes may have been on the 2016 presidential contest.
More than any other factor, Clinton has blamed her loss on FBI Director James Comey’s decision to reopen an investigation into her private email server in the campaign’s final days.
Comey’s decision came after FBI agents investigating Weiner’s sexual misdeeds discovered that her emails had been forwarded to Weiner’s laptop, apparently by his wife.
Weiner is also being divorced by his wife Huma Abedin, who wants full custody of their son and is still a top aide to Hillary Clinton
Divorce: Weiner’s sexting relationship with a minor has cost him his marriage to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s closest aide, and the two are battling over custody of their son Joshua, five
In a matter of days, the FBI concluded there was nothing new in the emails, but Clinton has said the damage was done. Some political analysts suggested the issue may have indeed been a factor in tilting the election in Donald Trump’s favor, particularly across Midwestern battlegrounds such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In her new book ‘What Happened,’ Clinton revealed the moment that Abedin burst into tears after learning her husband had triggered Comey’s ‘October surprise.’
‘When we heard this Huma looked stricken,’ Clinton wrote. ‘Anthony had already caused so much heartache. And now this. ‘This man is going to be the death of me,’ (Huma) said, bursting into tears.’
In a letter to the court, Weiner expressed his ‘profound’ sorrow for endangering the welfare of a girl he admits knowing was underage. The fallout included news his wife had filed for divorce in May on the same day he pleaded guilty.
‘My continued acting out over the years crushed the aspirations of my wife and ruined our marriage,’ he said. His young son, he added, ‘will forever have to answer questions about the public and private failings of his father.’