The new photos roil the campaign that has Weiner as a top candidate. Weiner kept sexting after resignation

Joined by his wife at a dramatic news conference Tuesday, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner acknowledged that he continued to have illicit relationships with women online even after he resigned his seat in Congress two years ago over the same behavior.

“Some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after,” Weiner said.


It was an astonishing admission: After an episode that wrecked his political career, nearly destroyed his marriage, and made him an object of international mockery, Weiner couldn’t stop himself from going back for more. Until now a leading contender for mayor, Weiner intends to seek forgiveness from New Yorkers, again.

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Asked when he stopped exchanging raunchy messages with other women, Weiner pointed to “sometime last summer” though he said he couldn’t “say exactly when.”

His wife, longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, said Weiner’s resignation “was the beginning of a time in our marriage that was very difficult and it took us a long time to get through it. … It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy.” Abedin, who appeared by his side and told reporters she was “very nervous,” added that “it was not an easy choice in any way, but I made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage … for me, my son and our family.”

Weiner said that he would not withdraw from the mayor’s race.

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“I’m glad these things are behind us, I know that this was a very public thing that we had happen to us, but by no means does this change the fundamentals of my feelings here,” Weiner said. “And that is that I want to bring my vision to the people of the city of New York. I hope they’re willing to still continue to give me a second chance. And I hope they realize that, in many ways, what happened today was something that, frankly, had happened before but it doesn’t represent all that much that’s new.”

His latest apology came after additional pictures and texts with a woman emerged on the gossip website thedirty.com — roiling the high-profile race as Weiner had emerged as a top candidate.

The website asserted this week that Weiner carried on an online relationship from July until November 2012 with a woman who was not named. If that timing is accurate, it would mean that Weiner continued to engage in the type of conduct that forced him to resign his seat in Congress in 2011.

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Weiner did not confirm the timing of the alleged exchange in his statement, saying only that some elements of the site’s reports were accurate and others not. The uproar threatens to unravel Weiner’s surprisingly strong performance in the race since he launched his bid in May: A Quinnipiac University poll last week had him leading the crowded Democratic primary field.

“I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have. As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress,” the former Democratic congressman’s statement read.

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It continued, “While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong. This behavior is behind me. I’ve apologized to Huma and am grateful that she has worked through these issues with me and for her forgiveness. I want to again say that I am very sorry to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption that this has caused. As my wife and I have said, we are focused on moving forward.”

TheDirty.com this week posted a series of explicit exchanges that allegedly occurred between Weiner and an anonymous source, who is described as “a young female girl who wishes to remain Anonymous.” Posts on the site say she was 22 last summer when she and Weiner started a relationship that played out on Facebook and the social media site Formspring, as well as through phone and email conversations — he used the name “Carlos Danger” for his Yahoo account, the site said.

Their exchanges included phone sex and raunchy online messages, according to the site, which displays screenshots of some of the alleged conversations. The site says Weiner also offered to help the unnamed woman procure a blogging gig with POLITICO.

“Ok so a friend at [POLITICO] called me for ideas for a thing they are doing in swing states,” reads a screenshot of an alleged exchange between Weiner and the source, whose Facebook picture and name are blurred out.

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“How can I help?” she responded.

“but do me a solid, can you hard delete all our chats here,” Weiner said before continuing, according to the post. After she agreed, he wrote, “great. So they are looking to create a panel of bloggers…can I give him your deets?”

“Absolutely!” she replied.

POLITICO Editor-In-Chief John F. Harris said he does not have any idea what Weiner is referring to, and no one he’s talked to at the organization does, either. Weiner was one of numerous congressmen invited to contribute to a now-defunct editorial feature for POLITICO called the Arena.

In another post, the site said it was displaying conversations from Formspring in which a user — the woman said it was Weiner — outlined sexual fantasies in explicit language.

“Staring at pics of u. Pathetic?” read one line from Weiner.

“If I met you in a bar and tried to talk to you, would I have a chance?” he asked, according to the site.

“Absolutely! You’re such an amazing man. I still can’t believe someone like you would pay attention to someone like me. It’s literally a dream come true,” the woman responded.

He also called her a “walking fantasy” and in one exchange, said, “Taking a shower. Wanna join me?” according to the site.

On Tuesday, thedirty.com posted a timeline of the alleged relationship, attributed to the woman. It says that the two began talking in July of 2012 — about a year after the former congressman resigned after tweeting tawdry pictures.

The site also says that Weiner promised the source a Chicago condo, “where they were planning to meet up to have sex.” The site gives an address that Google Maps reveals is located near the Windy City’s Museum Campus.

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“Things were very intense by August 2012/already talks of the Chicago sex condo and having sexual conversations,” the woman said in the timeline post.

Nik Richie, the owner and editor of the site, arranged a phone call Tuesday between a POLITICO reporter and the woman. Neither Richie nor the woman making the allegations provided her name. In a 25-minute interview, she described a relationship with Weiner that mirrored thedirty.com’s report.