If Anthony Weiner Sexted a 15-Year-Old He 'Almost Certainly' Will Be Charged
Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 9:59 a.m.
By Lauren Evans
Today's cover of the NY Post
|
A A
Facebook
141
Twitter
-
More shares recommend reddit email
0
0
Anthony Weiner’s dick-pic-sending habit may have transitioned from being merely uncouth to something much more serious. The Daily Mail reported yesterday that the former Congressman, mayoral candidate, and married person has been sexting not only with adult women, but also with a fifteen-year-old girl.
According to the tabloid, Weiner’s relationship with the girl began in January, and he was well aware that she was underage. Using Twitter, Facebook, Kik, and Confide — a "confidential messenger" that erases posts after they’re sent — the fallen politician sent a barrage of messages that started with small talk and quickly escalated into something much darker, culminating in him allegedly sending naked photos, porn, and sharing his rape fantasies.
If the girl’s story is true, Weiner would "almost certainly" face charges of child endangerment, said Hermann Walz, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. That particular charge is a misdemeanor, but it could also have an impact on his relationship with his own child — which is reportedly already under investigation by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services after Weiner was found to be sending messages to women that included images of his four-year-old son.
"In a custody battle, endangering the welfare of a child is probably going to have some impact," Walz said. In the event that the girl sent him naked photos — and while he asked for them, she never said that she did — it could turn into something much more serious, like possession of sexual performance of a minor.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
Upcoming Events New Jersey Devils vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Tickets
Mon., Sep. 26, 7:00pm
New York Islanders vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Tickets
Mon., Sep. 26, 7:00pm
New York Rangers vs. New York Islanders
Tickets
Tue., Sep. 27, 7:00pm
New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Tickets
Tue., Sep. 27, 7:05pm
The conversation between Weiner and the unidentified girl began on January 23, when she DM’d Weiner on Twitter. She found him fascinating, she later told the Mail, and her goal was write a book about him.
Weiner responded, of course, and the conversation, initially about such innocuous subjects as the weather, turned sexual in short order.
"You are kinda sorta gorgeous," he wrote, before adding her on Facebook and continuing the exchange there.
"How did you sleep?" she asked.
"Not great. Woke up very, uh, eager," he replied.
The flirtation continued, with Weiner at one point writing that "f anyone would get the wrong impression we should say goodbye now." He didn’t, though, instead switching over to the app Kik, where Weiner adopted the name "T-Dog." Next came the shirtless photos, including one with his face. "Maybe delete that," he wrote.
The two also communicated over Skype, apparently to the detriment of Weiner’s child.
"[Weiner’s] son was in the bathtub at the time just downstairs," the girl told the Mail. "So he would yell at his son to check on him, and then he asked me to take my clothes off, and just started saying these really sexual things." He also sent her naked pictures of himself over Confide, which as advertised, deleted them — but not before the girl took screengrabs.
The messages got increasingly explicit ("I would bust that tight pussy," he wrote in one), but the girl said she was on board until Weiner brought up his rape fantasies.
"It would just be him showing up at my house when my dad was out of town," she told the tabloid. "And just start undressing me, being forceful, asking me if I want to be dominated, strange questions." She said he stopped when she expressed that she was uncomfortable.
In April, she told her father and a trusted teacher about her relationship with Weiner, though she continued to talk with him.
"After I told my teacher about the relationship, [Weiner] wanted me to email my dad and my teacher and tell them that was I said was false," she said. "That the conversations were appropriate and were never inappropriate, and he was very helpful." Weiner even wrote a letter in her voice for her to send to her teacher, explaining that their interactions were perfectly respectable.
In July, the girl decided she’d had enough, apparently grossed out by him using his son in his sexual escapades. Escapades, by the way, that he also shared with her.
"He talked about women he would meet up with and have sex with, women he would meet at the gym, women he would chat with online," she said. (It’s worth noting that Huma Abedin didn’t file for divorce until the end of August.)
Weiner did not deny the exchanges, and has sent the following statement to several news outlets:
"I have repeatedly demonstrated terrible judgement about the people I have communicated with online and the things I have sent.
"I am filled with regret and heartbroken for those I have hurt. While I have provided the Daily Mail with information showing that I have likely been the subject of a hoax, I have no one to blame but me for putting myself in this position. I am sorry."
It’s unclear what the "hoax" aspect of the story would be. The girl mentioned her age repeatedly, telling Weiner that she was in high school, that she couldn’t talk until her parents were asleep, that she had her learner’s permit. "I like older guys. Mature men. But that’s illegal," she wrote at one point. That she was a teenager wasn’t a topic that was casually mentioned once — it was imbued into nearly every conversation they had.
The Manhattan DA declined to comment on the charges Weiner potentially faces if the girl’s story does indeed turn out to be true. It’s unclear whether the NYPD has opened an investigation — as a spokesperson told the Voice, "We don’t know where he was at when he sent the texts, nor do we know where this girl is."
The girl said she didn’t want to press charges since her relationship was “consensual," but that outcome will, of course, be out of her hands.
|
