NEW YORK—Former Congressman Anthony Weiner wept on Friday as he pleaded guilty to sending sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl, ending an investigation into a “sexting” scandal that played a role in last year’s U.S. presidential election.
Wearing a navy suit, maroon tie and his wedding band, a tearful Weiner, 52, described his conduct before U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York City.
“I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse,” Weiner said, apologizing to the 15-year-old girl to whom he sent sexually explicit images and messages last year.
The charge of transferring obscene material to a minor carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but Weiner is likely to get less. As part of his plea agreement, federal prosecutors said they would consider a term between 21 months and 27 months “fair and appropriate.”
Weiner will be sentenced on Sept. 8.
The former Democratic congressman’s political career imploded after a series of scandals involving inappropriate sexual exchanges with women online.
The probe into his exchanges with the teenage girl, however, also helped upend the final days of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Federal agents who had seized Weiner’s laptop discovered a batch of emails from Huma Abedin, a senior aide to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.
As a result, James Comey, then the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced in late October that the agency was reviewing the messages to determine whether to reopen its investigation into Clinton’s handling of official correspondence.
JOHN ANGELILLO/AFP/Getty Images
