Anthony Weiner Convicted For Sexting Teen, Will Serve 21 Months in Prison

Anthony Weiner, a man who has been a politician, a documentary subject and a continual punchline for late-night comedians, is now also a convicted sex offender.

Weiner plead guilty back in May to the charge of transferring obscene material to a minor. The trial arose from Weiner Skyping with and sending pornography to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Per THR:

“Prosecutors said [Weiner] sent her porn and got her to take her clothes off and touch herself on Skype. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kramer on Monday urged Cote to give Weiner a significant prison sentence to end his “tragic cycle” of sexting.”

Weiner will have to surrender himself to prison officials by Nov. 6. After serving his 21 months, he will have to attend a sex-offender treatment program. He was also fined $10,000 and his internet use in the future will be monitored. During the trial, he said he had “a sickness,” as this is not the first time his addiction to sexual hyperactivity has started a scandal. A similar story erupted in 2011, when Weiner’s Twitter account posted pictures of his bulge. He resigned, tried to run for Mayor and gave up when even more sexting allegations arose.

THR also mentions that it was the discovery of emails between Weiner’s wife Suma Abedin and Hillary Clinton from this very investigation that led to the FBI’s decision to reopen their investigation into Clinton’s emails, an incident which very likely influenced the outcome of the election:

“The FBI was investigating Weiner’s contact with the high school student when it came across emails on his laptop between Abedin and Clinton, prompting then-FBI Director James Comey to announce in late October 2016 that he was reopening the probe of Clinton’s use of a private computer server.”

Comey would later announce that there was no new information gained from Clinton’s emails with Abedin, but this was clearly too little, too late. Clinton calls Comey’s announcement the “deciding factor” of the election in her new book, and Donald Trump gave Comey a big ol’ hug the first time he saw him in office.

After Judge Denise Cote handed down Weiner’s sentence, he spent several minutes crying in his chair. Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll ever have to write about him.