Anthony Weiner Sentenced To 21 Months In Prison For Teen Sexting

NEW YORK, NY — Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Monday for "sexting" a 15-year-old girl.

Judge Denise Cote handed down the sentence in Manhattan federal court. Along with 21 months in prison, Weiner will be under supervised release for three years and also must pay a $10,000 fine, the New York Daily News reported. The judge ordered Weiner to turn himself in and begin his prison sentence by Nov. 6.

Anthony Weiner In Prison: What Can He Expect?

Prosecutors had asked for Weiner to be sentenced to between 21 and 27 months in prison. Weiner admitted to this latest scandal in May, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of transferring obscene material to a minor.

As he was sentenced, he lowered his head into his hands and wept, the New York Post reported. Behind him sat his parents and his brother, but soon-to-be ex wife Huma Abedin was not in the courtroom.

"Anthony Weiner, a former Congressman and candidate for Mayor, asked a girl who he knew to be 15 years old to display her naked body and engage in sexually explicit behavior for him online," the acting U.S attorney for Manhattan Joon Kim said in a statement. "Justice demands that this type of conduct be prosecuted and punished with time in prison. Today, Anthony Weiner received a just sentence that was appropriate for his crime."

Weiner's defense attorneys had asked that the former New York City council member be sentenced to probation. The 53-year-old was found to be "highly compulsive in sexual behaviors" by a doctor, his attorney Arlo Devlin-Brown said on Monday.

Weiner exchanged "thousands of messages with hundreds of women...[this] was his first teenager and his last teenage victim," Devlin-Brown said, according to the Daily News.

Weiner admitted sending lewd texts to a girl he knew to be 15 between January and March of 2016. Prosecutors said the former New York City congressman used online messaging and video chat applications to send her sexually explicit images and directions to engage in sexual conduct.

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"Although the defendant’s self-destructive path from United States Congressman to felon is indisputably sad, his crime is serious and his demonstrated need for deterrence is real," federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum last week.

Weiner has been ensnared in multiple sex scandals, both before and after he resigned from Congress. His admitted conduct with the teenager, his most recent implosion, got wrapped in the drama surrounding the 2016 presidential election because Weiner's estranged wife, Huma Abedin, served as a key adviser to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Abedin and Weiner are in the middle of getting a divorce.

Image credit: Joe Raedle / Staff / Getty Images News