It's not clear what type of role Abedin will now play in her husband's campaign. Abedin to take break from Hillaryland

Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s transition office chief and the wife of embattled New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, is expected to take extended vacation time from her job with the former first lady in the coming days, sources told POLITICO.

The move is not a leave of absence, two sources familiar with the move insisted, and it’s not precisely clear when she will depart for her vacation time from her day job.


It was a loose plan she’d had for weeks, since Hillary Clinton has close to no schedule next month - the Clintons are expected to vacation in the monied East Hampton enclave on Long Island - and Abedin had been expected to take the final few weeks leading up to the mayoral primary to be with her husband.

( PHOTOS: How close are Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton?)

But she decided to stick to it as current events in her husband’s campaign have unfolded, the sources said. Weiner has spent the last week answering questions about fresh sexting incidents after he left Congress in 2011, and Abedin has been the subject of a string of rough headlines since she spoke at a press conference with her husband and said she loved and believed in him.

“Huma is not taking a leave of absence, but she will be taking vacation time in August to support her family during Anthony’s campaign,” said a Weiner campaign source. “She had always intended to do this.”

While it’s not a “leave,” the vacation time provides a change from a straddling of two roles that Abedin had been playing - helping her husband while also serving as the former secretary of state’s top aide as she transitions from Foggy Bottom to her family’s foundation.

( Also on POLITICO: Concern grows for Huma within Clinton world)

POLITICO reported Tuesday that a number of people in the extended Clinton world had grown concerned about Abedin amid the media circus surrounding her husband.

It is also not yet clear what type of role Abedin will play in her husband’s campaign going forward. She had begun to appear with him on the campaign trail prior to the revelations on TheDirty.com, but has not resumed since last week’s news conference.

She did not appear in a video Weiner filmed in the couple’s apartment Saturday in which the candidate looked into the camera and declared that New Yorkers don’t “quit.”

( QUIZ: Do you know Anthony Weiner?)

The night before the video was filmed, Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines, one of Abedin’s closest friends, urged her not to appear in it, and to take some time to think after a painful and difficult week, sources familiar with the conversation told POLITICO. Reines’ concern was for Abedin, the sources said, as a friend, who has worked alongside her for over a decade.

Reines’ goal was strictly concern for Abedin in the moment, the source added. Another source said there had been no suggestion from Weiner’s team that she appear in it, and that Abedin had not required much convincing.

Follow @politico