On Monday, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, the wife of former Congressional representative Anthony Weiner, announced that she was separating from Weiner after the revelation that he had been sexting a woman while his toddler son lay in bed next to him.
On Sunday, the New York Post published screen shots from July 31, 2015, showing Weiner bare-chested and photographing his crotch as he sexted the woman, who sent photos of herself in a bikini, while they conversed about sex. As they spoke of massage parlors, Weiner allegedly segued in one message to write, “Someone just climbed into my bed,” prompting the woman to respond, “Really?”
That triggered Weiner’s response, showing his toddler son next to him while the photo showed Weiner aroused in his white Jockey shorts.
Abedin stated, “After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband. Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy.”
Weiner resigned in 2011 after lewd messages and photos of his to other women were revealed. It appeared he deleted his Twitter account on Monday.
Abedin has served Clinton for two decades, as an intern when Clinton served as First Lady in the 1990s, then as a close aide for Clinton’s senatorial tenure.
Clinton supported Abedin when the sexting scandal broke in 2011; according to friends, she supported Abedin’s decision to remain married.
The New York Times reported that subsequent to the Post publishing the latest sexting photos, Clinton’s allies asked the campaign what Abedin was going to do about it.
The woman Weiner was sexting told the Post that the online chats began in January 2015 and continued up through the present.
The Post stated that the woman was a “self-avowed supporter of Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association who’s used Twitter to bash both President Obama and Clinton.”
Weiner told the Post that he and the woman “have been friends for some time.”
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband.”
Huma Abedin
Weiner vowed to stop his libertine behavior in 2011, but his attempt at running for mayor in 2013 was wrecked when it was revealed he had been exchanging messages online with more women, calling himself “Carlos Danger.”
Abedin said at the time, “Our marriage, like many others has had its ups and its downs. It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony. It was not an easy choice in any way, but I made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage. That was a decision I made for me, for our son, and for our family.”
Last month, speaking to the Times, Weiner would not state whether he still engaged in his online activities, saying, “I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that. But I will say this: There’s no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has led a lot of people to say to me, ‘Boy, compared to inviting the Russians to come hack someone’s email, your thing seems almost quaint.’ ”