Anthony Weiner Pleads Guilty to End Sexting Scandal

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner cried in federal court Friday morning as he pleaded guilty to one charge of transferring obscene material to a minor. He has agreed not to appeal any sentence between 21 and 27 months in prison, and a judge informed him that he will be required to register as a sex offender. Weiner apologized to the 15-year-old girl with whom he exchanged explicit texts. “I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse,” he said. Weiner reportedly surrendered to the FBI in New York early Friday morning. The charges came last year when it was revealed that, starting in January 2016, he had been exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a 15-year-old girl. Weiner resigned from Congress five years earlier, after being caught sexting with women who were not his wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin; and then a year after that, another extramarital sexting bout derailed his run for mayor of New York City. A U.S. Attorney said Friday: “Weiner’s conduct was not only reprehensible, but a federal crime, one for which he is now convicted.”