Story highlights Weiner will have to register as a sex offender

Sentencing is scheduled for September 8

New York (CNN) Former Rep. Anthony Weiner pleaded guilty Friday to transferring obscene material to a minor and will register as a sex offender.

"I accept full responsibility for my conduct. I have a sickness, but I do not have an excuse," Weiner said through pauses and bouts of tears in an emotional statement. "I entered intensive treatment, found the courage to take a moral inventory of my defects, and began a program of recovery and mental health treatment that I continue to follow every day."

As part of the plea agreement, he also will have to forfeit his iPhone, surrender his passport, continue mental health treatment and is barred from having any contact with the girl.

"Today, former Congressman Anthony Weiner admitted and pled guilty to sending sexually explicit images and directions to engage in sexual conduct to a girl he knew to be 15 years old," acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim of the Southern District of New York said in a statement. "Weiner's conduct was not only reprehensible, but a federal crime, one for which he is now convicted and will be sentenced."

Weiner, 52, was released on bail pending sentencing, which is scheduled for September 8, the release said. The government recommended between 21 and 27 months imprisonment, which Weiner's counsel agreed to, though ultimately it is up to a judge to decide.

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