Weiner Is Headed to Prison
Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison this morning, related to obscene texts he sent a 15-year-old. He is 53.
According to Reuters, Weiner, whose congressional career and mayoral run were both undone by sexting scandals, cried when his sentence was read by U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote; he'd pled guilty to the crime in May and had said at the time that he would not appeal any sentence of 27 months or less.
Weiner's team tried to claim he should be given probation instead of prison time, due to the "depths of an uncontrolled sickness" that pushed him to repeatedly send women explicit photos online. His lawyers stated that Weiner responded to those incidents "as a weak man, at the bottom of a self-destructive spiral, and with an addict’s self-serving delusion that the communications were all just Internet fantasy.”
Cote acknowledged that medical professionals who examined Weiner determined he is an "addict" in need of treatment, which he has said he is receiving, but she concluded that Weiner's offense was a "serious crime" that warranted prison time, especially given the public interest in the case and the fact that the sentence could serve to deter similar crimes.
Weiner will have to surrender himself by November 6, 2017 and register as a sex offender when he's released.
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