Anthony Weiner Sexting Scandal: Huma Abedin Separating, Donald Trump Responds

Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin, a powerful aide on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, will separate as the former U.S. congressman from New York City found himself Monday embroiled in yet another sexting scandal — this one involving photos of his own child.

Weiner's Twitter account also disappeared after The New York Post, ever Weiner's greatest adversary, published a story late Sunday night showing screenshots of texts between him and an unnamed "busty brunette out West."

“Someone just climbed into my bed,” Weiner texted the woman.

“Really?” she responded.

Weiner replied with the photo in question, lying in bed with his toddler son asleep next to him and the camera trained on his pants. The front page of Monday's Post read, "Pop goes the Weiner."

Patch won't describe anything further, but you can view the slightly not-safe-for-work photos and read the full New York Post report here.

The woman on the other end of the texts was not named. In a statement to the Post, Weiner said of her, “She has asked me not to comment except to say that our conversations were private, often included pictures of her nieces and nephews and my son and were always appropriate."

Abedin, Weiner's soon-to-be-former wife, is on the campaign trail for Clinton.

"After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband," Abedin said in a statement Monday. "Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy."

Abedin has long been an influential aide of Clinton. Her political career began with a 1996 White House internship, where she worked for Clinton in her role as first lady. She was later an adviser on Clinton's successful 2000 U.S. Senate bid and was traveling chief of staff on Clinton's 2008 failed presidential bid.

Abedin served as Clinton's deputy chief of staff at the State Department while working as a consultant for the Clinton foundation. Now the vice chairwoman of Clinton's presidential campaign, Abedin is essentially the No. 3 in the operation.

In a statement, Clinton's general election opponent Donald Trump, rather loosely, tried to score political points by linking Weiner's indiscretions with Clinton's national security judgment.

“Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him,” the statement said.

“I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” the statement continued. “Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.”

There is no evidence that Weiner had access to any sort of classified information because of his relationship with Abedin.

Trump donated a total of $4,300 to Weiner's congressional campaign between 2007 and 2010. Trump has also donated $110,000 to the Clinton Foundation, made while Abedin was a top consultant.

Weiner is now in the midst of a third scandal scandal involving lewd pictures of himself made public. He resigned from Congress in 2011 after he accidentally tweeted a suggestive photo for the world to see, and more leaked sexts in 2013 derailed a run for New York City mayor.

Weiner has largely been a good sport about getting caught red-handed, and before Sunday's Post scoop his image seemed to be somewhat on the mend.

In June, responding to a tweet that said, "Tbh we should all delete our accounts," Weiner replied, "Too late for some of us." In November 2015, when actor Seth Rogen tweeted, "I did that thing again where I think I'm messaging someone but I tweeted it," Weiner replied, "Jeez, what a dummy."

He apparently didn't take Sunday's Post report with such humility. As of Monday morning, the Twitter account @anthonyweiner had disappeared from existence.

The New York Daily News said Monday it would no longer publish Weiner's columns. New York 1, a local news station in New York City where Weiner was a regular contributor, said he was suspended indefinitely.

In an interview with New York Times Magazine published two weeks ago, Weiner was asked whether he was still engaged in "the activities that got you in trouble."

"I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that," Weiner was quoted as saying. "But I will say this: There’s no doubt that the Trump phenomenon has led a lot of people to say to me, 'Boy, compared to inviting the Russians to come hack someone’s email, your thing seems almost quaint.'"

"Weiner," a documentary released in May, chronicled his 2013 run for mayor and the fallout that ensued. It has an impressive 96 percent rating on the notoriously hard-to-please film review website Rotten Tomatoes.

Image via Boss Tweed, Flickr, used under Creative Commons