Hillary Clinton's camp hit by sexting scandal
New York, Aug 29: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin, whose father is from India and mother from Pakistan, has filed for separation from her husband Anthony Weiner in the wake of a new report that the former New York congressman had been involved in yet another sexting scandal.
Abedin's decision to separate comes in the immediate aftermath of the The New York Post report that Weiner had sent explicit photos with his toddler son in the background to a woman.
"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.
In a report published on Monday (Aug 29), The Post said: "While Abedin travels the country campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Clinton, the ex-congressman was exchanging lewd and sexually explicit texts and photographs with an unidentified woman last year."
Weiner, a seven-term democrat, had resigned in 2011 after it was disclosed he had been sending lewd messages to random women online.
According to the report, the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the electronic chats between her and Weiner began in late January 2015 and continued through earlier this month.
Asked for comment, Weiner said in the report that he and the woman "have been friends for some time."
"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"
he
said.
Abedin,
40
and
currently
vice
chairwoman
of
the
Clinton
Campaign,
married
Weiner
in
2010.
In
December
2011,
she
gave
birth
to
a
boy
Jordan
Zain
Weiner.
"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 said.
Considered as one of the closet personal aide to Clinton, Abedin has been in news of late in the aftermath of Clintons email-scandal and release of emails of the former secretary of state.
Abedin has worked for Clinton for the last two decades. Her late father, Syed Zainul Abedin, was a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University and a university lecturer, and her mother - a Pakistani native - was a sociology professor.
PTI