Anthony Weiner i tårar i rätten: ”Har en sjukdom”

American politician Anthony Weiner, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City, has been involved in three sexual scandals related to sexting, or sending explicit sexual material by cell phone. The first, sometimes dubbed Weinergate, led to his resignation as a congressman in 2011. The second, during his attempt to return to politics as candidate for mayor of New York City, involved three women Weiner admitted having sexted after further explicit pictures were published in July 2013. The third, in 2015 but publicized in 2016, resulted in an announced intended separation between him and his wife, Huma Abedin. The first scandal began when Democratic U.S. Congressman Weiner used the social media website Twitter to send a link to a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a 21-year-old woman from Seattle, Washington. After several days of denying media reports that he had posted the image, he admitted to having sent a link to the photo, and other sexually explicit photos and messages to women both before and during his marriage. He denied ever having met, or having had a physical relationship with any of the women. On June 16, 2011, Weiner announced his intention to resign from Congress effective June 23. A second scandal began on July 23, 2013, after Weiner returned to politics in April 2013 by entering the New York City mayoral election, when more pictures and sexting by Weiner were released by the website The Dirty. They were allegedly sent under the alias Carlos Danger to a 22-year-old woman with whom Weiner had contact in late 2012, and as late as April 2013, more than a year after Weiner had left Congress. Weiner admitted sexting at least three women during this period, and although called on by The New York Times editorial board, among others, to leave the mayoral race, he remained in the race until the end, when he took fifth place in the Democratic primary, with 4.9% of the vote.