The young woman who leaked screenshots of her post-resignation sexting with Anthony Weiner told TheDirty.com that she wanted to remain anonymous, but since we’re dealing with the Internet here, it took only a few hours for her to be identified. BuzzFeed has obtained images from Facebook and Formspring that seem to match the blurred shots posted on TheDirty.com, and rummaged through the now-shuttered accounts. She appears to be an Indiana woman in her early twenties who was a field organizer for Obama for America and listed Weiner as number three on her list of heroes. In separate posts, she wrote that Weiner “did nothing wrong” and “can continue sending dick pics every single day for the rest of his life as long as he continues to legislate like he does.” 
 
 The woman used the handles “Sydney Leathers” and “sidneyelainexo,” and BuzzFeed reported early on Wednesday morning that her name is Sydney Elaine Leathers. A high school friend confirmed that the pair had raunchy online chats last summer, saying, “I saw the messages and the message said ‘Anthony Weiner.’” The friend claims that Weiner promised to “move her to either Chicago or New York,” and says Leathers “felt she was the important one,” even topping Huma Abedin. 
 
 After nervously speaking on Weiner’s behalf at her first press conference, on Tuesday evening Abedin offered up a second defense of her husband, somewhat unwittingly. She had already penned an essay for the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and the magazine published an early excerpt (titled “The Good Wife”). In the piece, Abedin explains, once again, why she decided to stay with her husband. “Anthony has always been a smart, caring, and dedicated person, and while he’s the same public servant who wants what’s best for the people he represents, he is now something else — a better man,” she says. Her prescient conclusion: ||||| Anthony Weiner will finally be cut off. 
 
 The pervy ex-pol whose years-long self-destructive sexting run sabotaged his own blossoming political career and marriage and helped torpedo Hillary Clinton’s shot at the White House will plead guilty Friday to a charge of transferring obscene material to a minor, possibly sending him to prison. 
 
 Weiner was taken into FBI custody Friday morning, a source told the Daily News, and he will enter the plea in a federal courtroom in Manhattan at 11:00 a.m. 
 
 The 52-year-old disgraced former congressman had been under federal investigation for having allegedly exchanged sexually explicit messages and images with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina in 2016. 
 
 Anthony Weiner has been under federal investigation for having allegedly exchanged sexuall explicit messages and images with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. (Richard Drew/AP) 
 
 Weiner could now face up to 10 years in prison for the charge and will likely have to register as a sex offender, but he could also avoid prison altogether. 
 
 A federal judge will determine his sentence at a later date. 
 
 Earlier this year, Weiner’s lawyers had reportedly been in talks with federal prosecutors for weeks, angling for a plea deal to avoid the most serious possible charge, production of child pornography, which would have carried a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence. 
 
 Weiner's estranged wife, Huma Abedin (l.), is a senior aide to Hillary Clinton. (Andrew Harnik/AP) 
 
 The expected plea stems from Weiner’s most recent sexting scandal. Last year, a North Carolina teen came forward last year to say that he had been exchanging explicit messages with her. 
 
 The girl said she decided to go public with their exchanges after seeing reports of Weiner sending pics to another woman with his toddler son in the background. 
 
 The teen has claimed he encouraged her to role-play rape fantasies with him and to say his name while touching herself. 
 
 Weiner's 2013 mayoral hopes were dashed in by the emergence of fresh scandal. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News) 
 
 Weiner reportedly went by the name “T-Dog” while texting the teen and used an encryption app that erases messages and pictures as soon as they’re seen. 
 
 In one shirtless photo sent to the girl, Weiner’s hand is gripping his genitals. 
 
 The investigation follows a series of public embarrassments that cost Weiner his political career and his marriage — and may have helped damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 
 
 Front page of the New York Daily News for September 22, 2016: Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner, whose long-suffering wife Huma Abedin recently dumped him, is caught sexting once again, this time with a 15-year-old girl. This time, his transgressions could land him in jail. 15 COULD GET HIM 20 (New York Daily News) Front page of the New York Daily News for May 4, 2017: Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin is the person who helped torpedo her presidential campaign, FBI Director James Comey claimed Wednesday, because Abedin regularly forwarded classified government emails to her serial sexting spouse Anthony Weiner so the disgraced former pol could print them out for her. HUMA ERROR (New York Daily News) Daily News front pages for Sept. 22, 2016 and May 4, 2017. 
 
 Weiner’s estranged wife Huma Abedin, a top aide to Clinton, had announced their separation last August after Weiner was caught sending a lewd selfie that showed his 4-year-old son lying next to him in bed. 
 
 Investigators soon seized Weiner’s electronic devices, including a laptop and a cell phone, as part of the probe into that picture, leading to a series of events that many say contributed to Clinton losing the election. 
 
 Federal investigators soon uncovered emails on his laptop that were sent by his estranged wife, prompting FBI Director James Comey to reopen an investigation into Clinton’s emails out of concern the shared computer might have had classified documents. 
 
 Porn star Sydney Leathers had a hand in Weiner's undoing. (Bryan Smith) 
 
 Comey quickly closed the case without any charges, but his announcement, just days before the election, that he’d reopened it at all created negative publicity during a critical moment of the presidential campaign. 
 
 Democrats said the attention might have contributed to President Trump’s win. 
 
 A Clinton presidency isn’t the only thing Weiner lost due to his pervy online personas. 
 
 The Queens Democrat resigned from Congress in 2011 after a lurid sexting scandal involving a crotch shot that he posted on Twitter. 
 
 A testy Weiner insisted to reporters at the time that his account had been hacked. But days later, he came clean and resigned. 
 
 He later admitted during a press conference to having carried on inappropriate online relationships with at least a half dozen women. 
 
 Two years later, he attempted a political comeback and ran for New York City mayor, but his bid imploded when more online exchanges with women surfaced, including messages he traded with a woman named Sydney Leathers under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” ||||| We're hearing for the first time from the young woman at the center of the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal. 
 
 
 
 Twenty-three-year-old Sydney Leathers spoke exclusively to INSIDE EDITION about the raunchy text messages and phone calls she exchanged with Weiner, who's now running for mayor of New York City. 
 
 "Anthony Weiner is responsible for his downfall," said Leathers."I feel sick about it. I'm disgusted by him. He is not who I thought he was." 
 
 Watch video of Part 1 of our interview here. 
 
 
 
 INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret said to Leathers, "I read one quote that suggested you thought he was a dirty old man." 
 
 Leathers replied, "He actually said that about himself to me. The exact wording is that he an argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man." 
 
 
 
 Leathers says her bizarre relationship with Weiner began in June, 2011 after he resigned from Congress in disgrace for sending images to women he met online. 
 
 Leathers sent him a Facebook message, criticizing his behavior. Out of the blue, a year later in July, 2012, she says he replied with a Facebook poke, a simple way of saying 'hi.' 
 
 Moret asked, "When did things turn dark and dirty?" 
 
 "Very quickly," said Leathers. 
 
 "Who prompted that?" asked Moret. 
 
 "He did," she replied. 
 
 "So, Anthony Weiner moved your conversation from professional to dirty?" 
 
 "Yes," said Leathers. 
 
 
 
 They began to exchanged steamy text messages. In one of the tamer ones, Weiner writes: "What are you wearing? Much for me to take off? I'd hold u by the throat." 
 
 He used a pseudonym that's become infamous overnight: Carlos Danger. 
 
 
 
 "It sounds ridiculous," said Moret. 
 
 Leathers said, "It is ridiciulous. I never really said anything about it, but I thought it was very silly." 
 
 
 
 She says she was shocked when Weiner texted her a risque self-picture that we can't show. 
 
 
 
 "I was absolutely shocked that he was willing to do that. And the fact that it was his idea is even more shocking," said Leathers. 
 
 
 
 She says she and Weiner also had phone-sex at least twice a week. 
 
 "Did you get the sense that he was acting out on the phone calls?" asked Moret. 
 
 "Absolutely, yes," she answered. 
 
 "And were they real for you, as well?" 
 
 "I think it was a fantasy thing for the both of us," said Leathers. 
 
 
 
 The sexting was constant, with Weiner writing: "I've found the perfect woman. Gorgeous, sexy and like a bit of crazy." 
 
 
 
 She replied: "I basically worship the ground you walk on. You're incredible." 
 
 Moret asked, "Did you think at that time that you loved Anthony Weiner?" 
 
 "Maybe not loved, but I definitely cared about him," said Leathers. 
 
 
 
 Leathers is from Mount Carmel, Illinois and is a college sophomore majoring in political science. 
 
 "I'm a total political junky, nerd," she admits. 
 
 
 
 Leathers says their sexting relationship ended in November, 2012. She thought Weiner was jealous that other men were leaving messages on her Facebook page. 
 
 
 
 "What would upset him?" asked Moret. 
 
 She explained, "Me being hit on by other men really upset him. We were Facebook friends, so he could see if men were commenting on photos of me, or telling me that I was pretty. Really minor things like that really bothered him." 
 
 
 
 She told Moret she last communicated with Weiner on Facebook four months ago when he announced he was running for mayor of New York. 
 
 
 
 He texted her: "Do me a solid. Can you hard delete all our chats here." 
 
 
 
 Leathers said, "Obviously I knew that he wanted me to erase any evidence of our conversations, because that was around the time I knew that he was going to run for mayor." 
 
 
 
 She says her relationship with Weiner reminded him of the Netflix series House of Cards, where actor Kevin Spacey plays a seedy congressman who carries on an affair with a reporter. 
 
 Moret asked, "Did you think, 'Oh my gosh, that's my life right now.'" 
 
 "Yes. When I saw House of Cards, I think it gave me a little bit of a panic attack, honestly," said Leathers. 
 
 
 
 She wept when we showed her Weiner's news conference where he acknowledged their relationship. She wants to apologize to his wife, Huma Abedin. 
 
 "I just feel very, very sorry for my part and the pain that she obviously feels," said Leathers.
– BuzzFeed has identified Anthony Weiner's newly revealed sexting partner as Sydney Elaine Leathers, a progressive activist in her early 20s who lives in Indiana. Pictures on her Facebook and Formspring accounts look pretty close to the blurred images offered up on The Dirty when it broke the sexting story, and she's talked about Weiner quite a bit online (often on accounts that are now deleted). For example, in a June 2011 Facebook post, she declared: "Rep. Weiner can continue sending dick pics every single day for the rest of his life as long as he continues to legislate like he does. I decided." Her TwitPic account identifies her as an Obama for America field organizer. She also listed Weiner as one of her heroes, wrote at least one blog post about his resignation, and said on Facebook that he shouldn't have resigned. An anonymous source confirms BuzzFeed got the ID right and says he or she saw the messages exchanged a year ago, but a BuzzFeed reporter asked Weiner last night if he knew Leathers and—shocker—got no response. The source, who says he or she has known Leathers since high school, says she "felt she was the important one" to Weiner, even more important than wife Huma Abedin. As for Abedin, Daily Intel notes that she came to a "prescient conclusion" in September's Harper's Bazaar: "People have said many things about my husband—some nice, some not so nice. And that will surely continue. Launching this campaign was not an easy decision for our family to make. Putting yourself out there comes with a cost." (Meanwhile, "cubicle guy" has become a viral sensation after Weiner's press conference last night.)