Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.), who is serving a 21-month prison sentence for sending sexually explicit messages to an underage girl, will be released from federal detention early because of good behavior, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Prison records show that Weiner, who was sentenced in September 2017 and began his term two months later, is scheduled to be released in May 2019, three months before his initial scheduled release date in August 2019, the New York Post reported Monday.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Politico on Tuesday that Weiner will be released early for "good conduct."
The former Democratic congressman and failed New York City mayoral candidate experienced a political downfall in recent years due to repeated sexting scandals, Politico reported.
Before his sexual abuse scandal roiled New York and national politics, Weiner was a popular all-star Democrat, winning several terms in the U.S. House of Representatives by wide margins. But when Weiner was outed for sending an explicit image to an adult via his Twitter in 2011, the congressman resigned in shame.
Weiner announced a brief and unsuccessful 2013 bid for mayor of New York City, which came to a screeching halt when he was again revealed to be sending sexually explicit photographs under the pseudonym "Carlos Danger."
In September 2016, the Daily Mail reported that Weiner had been sending sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl, prompting a criminal investigation and the seizing of Weiner's laptop. Shortly after he pleaded guilty in May 2017, his wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime close aide to Hillary Clinton, sued for divorce.
Weiner pleaded guilty last May to one charge of transferring obscene material to a minor, who was 15 years old.
During Weiner's sentencing last September, he became emotional and pleaded for probation because he was "a very sick man for a very long time." The judge did not budge on his decision, however, saying the crime resulted from a "very strong compulsion."
The FBI conducted a criminal probe into Weiner's sexting back in 2016. The investigation became linked to Hillary Clinton's presidential bid when then-FBI Director James Comey announced less than two weeks before the 2016 election that the bureau was reopening its probe into Clinton's private email server.
It was later revealed that federal investigators found emails between Clinton and Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, on his laptop that led them to reopen the email probe.
The FBI announced two days before the election that there was nothing new in the emails, but Clinton and her Democratic allies still argue the damage was already done and that Comey is in part to blame for her loss to President Donald Trump.
Clinton describes in her 2016 election memoir What Happened how Abedin "burst into tears" when she learned the investigation into Weiner caused the email scandal to resurface shortly before Election Day.