According to The Hill, Anthony Weiner, the former Democratic congressman who later ran for New York City mayor and in the process of divorce from Huma Abedin, Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Vice Chair during her 2016 presidential campaign, was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for sending lewd messages. Weiner, who plead guilty to one count of transfer of obscene materials to a minor was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and participate in a treatment program for sex offenders.
It seems the slow wheels of justice are finally turning in the right direction. Or could this be a political “show” resulting from the 2016 presidential elections? The Acting U.S. Attorney, Joon H. Kim, said, “Weiner asked a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him online. Today, Weiner received a just sentence appropriate for his crime.”
His soon to be ex-wife, Huma Abedin, did not attend the hearing at the Manhattan Federal Courthouse. This case brings to mind the uncanny similarities and contrast between the sexual allegation scandals and lawsuits filed as a result of the allegations that dogged the Clinton White House years and beyond, and Mr. & Mrs. Weiner’s political ambitions. Perhaps one reason why Secretary Clinton and Ms. Abedin became close friends is the feelings they shared born of the public humiliations and hard choices both women were forced to make to maintain their dignity and political careers.
In Ms. Abedin’s case, when prosecutors sought jail time for Mr. Weiner, Ms. Abedin wrote a letter to the court asking, “Their 5-year-old son should not suffer due to Weiner’s perversion.” In the letter she explained, “This is not a letter I ever imagined I would write, but, with Anthony, I have repeatedly found myself in circumstances I never imagined. I am devastated by Anthony’s actions, and I understand he must face their consequences, she wrote.” Mr. Weiner will serve his sentence in a federal prison and after serving time be subject to online supervision.
In spite of the right course of action by the Department of Justice in this particular case, there are two pending cases, in Florida and New York, where a close friend and donor of the Clinton’s and Weiner’s, and registered level 3 New York City sex offender, far more dangerous and influential than Mr. Weiner, remains free and without any online supervision.
The two pending cases represent the longest-running human trafficking case in U.S. legal history. It is every abolitionists’ dream that both pending cases: Jane Doe #1 & Jane Doe #2 vs. United States Government and Jane Doe #43 vs. Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sarah Kellen, Lesly Groff, and Natalya Malyshev, like the Weiner sexual abuse of a minor case, will have an unbiased and ethical conclusion.