What Weiner deserves
Monday in Manhattan, Federal Judge Denise Cote will sentence former Rep. Anthony Weiner for his crimes. She should follow prosecutors’ recommendations and put him in prison for 21 to 27 months. We say this not because we take any pleasure in seeing a prideful politician’s long, hard fall, or because Weiner brazenly lied to this Editorial Board and the public when scrambling to cover up his early indiscretions.
Our judgment is rooted in the reality that Weiner, with clear cognizance of the gravity of his actions, put a child at risk. Punishment must also be stern to stop a man who has shown profound trouble changing his ways from repeating his behavior — and to send a ringing message to others who might follow in his footsteps.
Weiner has earned a well-worn reputation as a sex-crazed miscreant. What is less well understood are the particulars of the offenses committed early last year against a 15-year-old girl, which led to his guilty plea this May on federal obscenity charges.
As Southern District prosecutors detail in their sentencing memorandum, it was early in their first exchange on Twitter last January that the victim revealed to Weiner she was in high school. That was the first tipoff she could well be under 16, making Weiner’s behavior illegal.
Weiner pressed on. Communications continued for many weeks. The girl revealed she was getting her learner’s permit — another clear sign she was a minor.
Weiner pressed on. Talk moved, in mid-February, to a video chat platform. This time, the girl revealed her age.
Weiner, as prosecutors detail, then “used graphic and obscene language to ask the Minor Victim to display her naked body and touch herself, which she did”; sent her a message detailing “what he would do to her, if she were 18,” and sent her adult pornography.
The crimes committed here — by a man who had, prosecutors point out, as a legislator described the internet as “the predator’s venue of choice today” — are too serious to warrant Weiner’s request for probation alone.
So too must the judge disregard Weiner’s sleazy insinuation that his punishment should be mitigated because the victim had ulterior motives and later gained attention, and $30,000, from sharing her story. The victim was not on trial.
Weiner’s plea for mercy ultimately hinges on claims that his admittedly “inexcusable” conduct rose out of a deep personal sickness from which he has made “remarkable progress.”
But as prosecutors point out, “On prior occasions, as here . . . 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.”
“The law must be respected to protect other teens from falling prey to the same conduct.”
Anthony Weiner belongs in jail.