After years of standing by her husband as he was embroiled in multiple sexting scandals, Huma Abedin has finally had enough and has filed for divorce from Anthony Weiner. Huma Abedin finally files for divorce from Anthony Weiner, by Julia Marsh, nypost.com, May 19, 2017. Despite the fact that Weiner just plead guilty in a federal court to sexting with a minor, sources say this divorce could be a long, nasty battle, as Weiner reportedly will fight for visitation with their 5 year old son. This will likely be a losing battle, however.
New York (where this case will take place), like Georgia, determines custody based on the "best interests of the child." With Weiner's guilty plea in the sexting case, there is no way he will have custody of the child. His only option is some sort of visitation. However, given that his guilty plea involves a minor, a Judge will likely find that it is not in the child's best interest to be alone with Weiner. Thus, the very best Weiner can hope for is supervised visitation, and even that isn't a guarantee under the circumstances.
Nonetheless, Weiner appears to be contesting the divorce, which will end up costing the parties substantial time and money to end up with the same resolution as they would if it settled today. According to a Manhattan divorce attorney, "no judge will allow him to have unsupervised visitation…He's going to ruin his family financially - if it's contested, it's going to cost over $100,000, easily." Weiner is certainly within his rights to fight for time with his child, but he needs to take a step back to see what it is really costing him, financially and otherwise, before going down that long road that doesn't seem to end well for him. He does not currently have a divorce lawyer but, hopefully, he will retain one that can help him understand that it is not worth the fight.