Fall complete: Weiner pleads guilty to sexting
destructive impulses brought great devastation to my family and friends and destroyed my life’s dream in public service. Yet I remained in denial even as the world around me fell apart.”
Weiner said he began getting mental health treatment in the fall, when he said he “came to grips for the first time with the depths of my sickness.” He said he continues to follow the treatment daily.
“I had hit bottom,” he said. “Through treatment I found the courage to take a moral inventory of my defects.”
Weiner apologized to “every- one I have hurt,” including the girl he “mistreated so badly.”
Finished speaking, he wiped his eyes with tissues.
Weiner was already in federal custody ahead of the hearing, which lasted less than half an hour. Afterward, he shook hands with prosecutors, telling them: “Thanks, guys. I appreciate your service.”
He then went down the courthouse elevator surrounded by his lawyers and court officers and left the building. He said nothing to reporters. His wife, Huma Abedin, was not in court.
Abedin, a top aide to Democra- tic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton last year, separated from Weiner in September after revelations he had sent more sexually charged messages online.
That same month, the FBI began investigating Weiner after the North Carolina girl told the news website DailyMail.com that she and Weiner had exchanged lewd messages for several months.
She also accused him of asking her to undress on camera. Phone messages left Friday with the North Carolina girl’s father were not immediately returned.
As part of his plea, Weiner agreed to forfeit his iPhone.
In a statement, attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown said his client had “apologized, offered no excuses and made a commitment to make amends.” He said the plea agreement reflected a resolution “on terms far less severe than could have been sought” because the circumstances lacked the kind of aggravating factors often present in similar cases. He added that Weiner remains “focused on his recovery.”
In a release, acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim called Weiner’s conduct “reprehensible,” saying he sent sexually explicit images and directions to engage in sexual conduct to a girl he knew was 15.