Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner Withdraw Their Divorce Filing
Count disgraced politician Anthony Weiner’s marriage as one of the few things he hasn’t lost in the past few years.
According to PageSix, Weiner and wife Huma Abedin have withdrawn their divorce proceedings hours before Abedin was set to appear at a Manhattan Supreme Court for a compliance conference regarding the case.
A judge reportedly announced that the case had been “discontinued” as of Wednesday.
An attorney representing Abedin reportedly submitted documentation signed by both parties agreeing to terminate the case, as noted by PageSix.
Abedin’s lawyer Charles Miller stated that “In order to ensure the proceedings have a minimal impact on their child, the parties have decided to attempt to reach a settlement swiftly and privately.”
However, family law expert Michael Stutman revealed to PageSix that in order for the financial settlement to be legally binding, Abedin and Weiner would have to file for a second divorce case in court.
But, as actor James Woods speculated, the decision to forgo a legal divorce case could be done with the intent of equipping Abedin and Weiner with “testimonial privilege” in criminal cases — a privilege that could come in handy should Abedin face legal action regarding the email controversy she has recently been embroiled in.
According to Cornell Law School, the Supreme Court recognizes two types of marital privileges.
A testimonial privilege grants that, “In criminal cases, one spouse may refuse to testify against his/her defendant spouse as a witness.”
In December, the State Department released emails from both Clinton and Abedin, that were found on Weiner’s laptop. According to the Associated Press, five of these emails were marked classified.
One such email from 2010 contained “a ‘callsheet’ to Clinton about her upcoming call to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to warn about an imminent leak of U.S. diplomatic cables,” according to Fox News.
It remains unclear whether the emails were originally classified or merely marked classified in preparation for their recent release, though the State Department reportedly said Friday that the emails contain “classified information that has been redacted.”
The emails, described by the AP as exchanges “between Clinton and Abedin,” were discovered during a criminal investigation over allegations Weiner had sent sexually explicit text messages to a minor.
The only reason the emails wound up being released by the State Department in December was due to a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit filed previously by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization that investigates misconduct by government officials.
“After years of hard work in federal court, Judicial Watch has forced the State Department to finally allow Americans to see these public documents,” the watchdog’s president, Tom Fitton, announced in a statement Friday.
“That these government docs were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop dramatically illustrates the need for the Justice Department to finally do a serious investigation of Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s obvious violations of law,” he added.
Abedin filed for divorce from Weiner in May, immediately after Weiner pleaded guilty to sexting with a minor.
As reported by The Western Journal, Weiner was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison this past September and entered the Federal Medical Center prison in November.
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