Top Clinton aide Abedin to separate from husband over sexting revelation

NEWYORK: Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin said on Monday she is separating from husband Anthony Weiner after another sexting revelation involving the former congressman.

“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband. Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy,” Abedin said in a statement released by Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Abedin’s move came after The New York Post on Sunday published photos that the newspaper said Weiner had sent last year to a woman it identified only as a “40-something divorcee.”

The Democrat quit Congress in 2011 following revelations that he was sending women sexually explicit messages.

Abedin is the vice chair of Clinton’s presidential campaign and served as her deputy chief of staff at the US State Department.

Weiner served in the US Congress representing his district in New York from 1999 to 2011. He made two unsuccessful runs for New York City mayor in 2005 and 2013.

The latest messages appear to be another instalment in a longrunning pattern of conduct by Weiner online that has made a public spectacle of his marriage and recalled the sex scandals attached to Clinton’s own marriage.

Weiner’s Twitter account has been deleted.