Anthony Weiner Pleads Guilty, Will Have To Register As A Sex Offender
Anthony Weiner is gross, but he's not special.
(via Getty Images).
Former New York congressman Anthony Weiner pleaded guilty today to one count of transferring obscene material to a minor. As part of the plea agreement, Manhattan prosecutors will ask for 21 to 27 months in prison. The judge is obviously going to wait for the sentencing report before making a final decision.
As many of you know, the F.B.I. was investigating Weiner’s sexting of underage girls when they found Hillary Clinton emails on his wife Huma Abedin’s computer. This made (former) F.B.I. director James Comey reopen the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Before re-closing it.
Now, Donald Trump is president, Anthony Weiner is going to jail, and no woman has suffered as much because the men around her couldn’t keep their dicks in their pants since Hester Prynne.
During his allocution, Weiner said, “I have a sickness, but I do not have excuse.” The judge reminded him that he would have to register as a sex offender.
While I never want to be on the side of defending Anthony Weiner, this seems like a good time to mention how stupid the sex offender registry is. I actually debated the necessity of the sex offender registry with Seema Iyer for my show “Persuade Me.” (Check out the webcast here). I wish I had the Weiner news in my arsenal.
When you think about it, the digital nature of Weiner’s crime perfectly illustrates how useless the registry has become. Let’s say Anthony Weiner moves onto your block. Would it really help you to have him come to your house and say, “Here are some muffins, by the way I’m a sex offender?” Are there any children made safer because Anthony Weiner cannot live within X miles of a school? Is there any parent out there who thinks, “I was going to let my child play at the former congressman’s house, but now that I know he’s a sex offender, we’re not going to the pool party”?
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I mean, he’s a former member of the House of Representatives… that’s all I’d need to know to determine that my children shouldn’t have anything to do with him.
In any event, Anthony Weiner’s “sickness” is sending dick pics via Twitter to people he’s never met. That’s… gross. That’s funny, from a certain point of view. That’s illegal if the person is a child. But that’s not something that you are protected from because he has to register and notify the community. You can’t protect your children from dick pics with a registry.
You can with prison. If Anthony Weiner isn’t capable of controlling himself when he has both a phone and a penis in his hands, he should stay locked up until he has been rehabilitated to the point where he can rejoin polite society.
But once we let him out, we should let him be free.
This might not be the end of Anthony Weiner. His sordid sexting history seems benign compared to what the sitting president has been accused of. I wouldn’t vote for him, but after he’s been punished I see no reason to continue punishing him.
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We live in a disgusting world, Anthony Weiner is nothing special.
Anthony Weiner to Plead Guilty to Resolve Sexting Inquiry [New York Times]
Earlier: No, Jim Comey Didn’t Try To Swing The Election (or ‘I TOLD YOU SO’)
A Fifth-Year Could Have Told You About Dupe Emails, WHY COULDN’T THE FBI?
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.
