Anthony Weiner Released From Prison, Must Register as Sex Offender
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has been released from prison, TMZ reported. Weiner had been serving a 21-month sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Mass. after he was caught exchanging sexual texts with a 15-year-old girl from North Carolina. The center where he was held offers treatment for sex offenders.
Weiner is still not free, though. He has now transferred to a Residential Reentry Management facility, either living in a halfway house or confined to his home, according to TMZ, which reports that Weiner secured an early release after good behavior earned him a sentence reduction by three months. Weiner’s official release date is now May 14, 2019. After that, he will be under supervised release for three years and must pay a fine of $10,000. He also must register as a sex offender.
Weiner’s fall from grace began in 2011 when he was caught sending a lewd photo on Twitter that led to the revelation he was engaging in multiple relationships with women online. Weiner was married at the time to longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner resigned from Congress but later attempted a run at New York mayor until another sex scandal derailed his campaign. But law enforcement did not get involved until 2017 when Weiner was discovered sending inappropriate texts with a girl in high school, even though he knew she was underage at the time.
Weiner became an unexpected wrench in Clinton’s 2016 presidential aspirations when law enforcement came across State Department emails on a computer owned by Abedin. It caused then-FBI Director James Comey to reopen the controversial investigation into Clinton’s emails as secretary of state, and Clinton maintains that the letters from Comey seriously damaged her presidential prospects.