Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in prison

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner who pleaded guilty in May to sexting with a 15-year-old girl, was sentenced on Monday to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

"The difference here is that this is a very strong compulsion," said Judge Denise Cote in handing down the sentence, saying that compulsion was evidence by "the destruction of his career on two occasions".

Weiner, who was unaccompanied by his wife Huma Abedin, buried his face in his hands on hearing the sentence.

The sentencing was delivered in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Weiner, 53, also faces spending the rest of his life as a registered sex offender for his lengthy and lurid social media contacts with the North Carolina teen, the USA Today reported.

Weiner cried as he read from a written statement in Manhattan federal court, saying he has hit "rock bottom." He said he was "a very sick man for a very long time."

Weiner was first elected to Congress in 1999 and easily won re-election in his Brooklyn district six more times. His star rose in the Democratic Party in 2010 after a short but dramatic speech before Congress blasting Republicans for voting against an aid bill for first-responders to the 9/11 terror attacks.

A year later he was out, resigning his seat after admitting to exchanging "messages and photos of an explicit nature with about six women" over a period of about three years.

Abedin, who stood by her husband through much of the scandal, finally filed for divorce in May, the same day Weiner pleaded guilty. The two have a young son.

--IANS

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