Huma Abedin has filed for divorce from former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a move she made prior to Weiner pleading guilty Friday to transferring obscene material to a minor, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Abedin, a top aide to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was not present at Friday’s hearing.
A message left with a representative for Abedin seeking comment Friday morning was not returned.
At the hearing Friday, Weiner accepted responsibility for his conduct. “I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse,” he said through pauses and bouts of tears in an emotional statement. “I entered intensive treatment, found the courage to take a moral inventory of my defects, and began a program of recovery and mental health treatment that I continue to follow every day.”
As part of the plea agreement, Weiner, 52, will register as a sex offender and also will have to forfeit his iPhone, surrender his passport and continue mental health treatment. He is also barred from having any contact with the minor.
“Today, former Congressman Anthony Weiner admitted and pled guilty to sending sexually explicit images and directions to engage in sexual conduct to a girl he knew to be 15 years old,” acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim of the Southern District of New York said in a statement. “Weiner’s conduct was not only reprehensible, but a federal crime, one for which he is now convicted and will be sentenced.”
The government recommended between 21 and 27 months imprisonment, which Weiner’s counsel agreed to, though ultimately it is up to a judge to decide.