Emails between Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin have triggered a renewal of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Here’s a quick look at the couple and investigation:
Weiner served New York’s 9th Congressional District from 1999 until 2011, when he resigned over a sexting scandal.
Married to Abedin, a longtime personal aide to Hillary Clinton, Weiner appeared to be on an inside track to Democratic leadership before the scandal broke. Abedin announced in August that she was separating from Weiner because of his ongoing sexting scandals.
Weiner’s public downfall began in 2011 when he sent a link of a sexually explicit photograph of himself over his Twitter account to an adult woman. Weiner at first denied sending the image, but later he admitted sexting with about six women over three years and apologized. Weiner resigned shortly thereafter.
In August, however, another scandal surfaced, with the New York Post reporting Weiner sent explicit photos to a third woman. One of the photos showed him in bed with his young son.
The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, then reported that “Weiner carried on a months-long online sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl during which she claims he asked her to dress up in ‘school-girl’ outfits for him on a video messaging application and pressed her to engage in ‘rape fantasies.’ “
Both the FBI and the New York Police Department soon launched investigations into Weiner’s apparent relationship with a minor. In investigating the alleged sexting, the FBI examined a computer shared by Weiner and Abedin and happened upon emails deemed relevant to the agency’s earlier probe of how Clinton and aides handled classified information during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. That led to the renewal of the investigation.
Abedin has served for many years as a staff member and adviser to Hillary Clinton.
Sources: The Washington Post, The Associated Press
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