Former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a sexting scandal involving a 15-year-old girl, Newsday reports. "I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse," he told the court in tears this spring.
Weiner, 53, is in the process of getting divorced from top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who did not appear in court for the sentencing. After The Daily Mail published the news last year that Weiner exchanged sexually explicit messages with a high school sophomore whom he knew was underage, the FBI got involved, seizing Weiner's laptop. That resulted in the discovery of emails on the laptop from Hillary Clinton to Abedin, a top aide to Clinton, reopening the (ultimately unchanged) FBI investigation into Clinton's handling of classified emails — which Clinton has blamed in part for her election loss.
Weiner had reportedly sought probation on the grounds that he needs therapy, calling himself "a very sick man for a very long time," NBC New York reports. Prosecutors argued Weiner's actions "[suggest] a dangerous level of denial and lack of self-control."