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A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 26 sepTember 2017
‘Rock bottom’: Weiner gets 21 months in prison for sexting

Continued from Front But prosecutor Amanda
Calling himself “a very sick Kramer urged the judge to
man for a very long time,” give Weiner a significant
Weiner tearfully apologized prison sentence to end his
to the teen and sought to “tragic cycle” of getting
assure the judge he had caught sexting.Weiner’s
finally learned his lesson. habit led him to resign his
He has been undergoing House seat in 2011, doomed
therapy. his 2013 run for mayor,
“I stand before you and rocked Clinton’s 2016
because I victimized presidential campaign
a young person who during the closing days
deserved better,” he said, of the race, when FBI
adding, “Your Honor, I’m agents investigating his
not asking that you trust contact with the teen
that my recovery is real. I came across emails
ask you for the opportunity on his laptop between
to prove that it is real.” Abedin and Clinton.
Wearing a wedding That discovery prompted
band, he also spoke of his then-FBI Director James
devotion to the 5-year-old Comey to announce in
son he has with his wife, late October 2016 that
Huma Abedin, formerly he was reopening the
Former Congressman Anthony Weiner leaves federal court following his sentencing, Monday, Clinton’s closest aide. The
Sept. 25, 2017, in New York. Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in a sexting case that rocked the probe of Clinton’s use of
presidential race. couple is going through a a private computer server.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) divorce. Two days before Election
Day, the FBI declared
Menendez donor’s rep ‘threatened’ US official there was nothing new in
the emails. But in a recent
interview, Clinton called
Comey’s intervention “the
By DAVID PORTER representative responded The official, Scott Smith, tor Salomon Melgen: that determining factor” in her
Associated Press with bluster and threats, told jurors he took the com- Menendez used his influ- defeat.Weiner, once he
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — When claiming he had political ment to refer to Menendez. ence to lobby on behalf has completed his prison
a wealthy donor to Sen. connections that could The interaction touches on of Melgen in exchange for sentence, must undergo
Bob Menendez asked gov- “cause a lot of problems,” the government’s central flights on Melgen’s private internet monitoring and
ernment officials for help a U.S. Commerce Depart- thesis in the bribery trial jet and visits to his villa in an enroll in a sex-offender
in a contract dispute and ment official testified Mon- of the New Jersey Demo- exclusive resort in the Do- treatment program. He
was rebuffed, the donor’s day. crat and Florida eye doc- minican Republic.q
also was fined $10,000.
After the sentencing
was over, he sat crying
for several minutes in
the courtroom. He left
the courthouse without
speaking to reporters.
Weiner’s behavior in all
its lurid detail — including
his online alias “Carlos
Danger” and a selfie of
his bulging underwear —
turned him and his last
name into an irresistible
punchline for late-night
comics and mortified his
wife again and again.
Weiner attorney Arlo
Devlin-Brown said his client
probably exchanged
thousands of messages
with hundreds of women
over the years and
was communicating
with up to 19 women
when he encountered
the teenager.He cited
the nation’s capacity
to forgive, recalling
that Weiner, even after
resigning from Congress in
disgrace, was leading the
New York mayoral primary
race when new sexting
disclosures emerged.q