WASHINGTON — Anthony Weiner’s resignation letter will be read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday, sealing his exit from Congress, FOX News Channel confirmed.
The Democrat’s term as a New York representative officially ended Tuesday night at 11:59 pm ET, but the House still needs to formally recognize his resignation.
He released a resignation letter Monday, sent to New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. It was also copied to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“I hereby resign as the Member of the House of Representatives for New York’s Ninth Congressional District effective at midnight, Tuesday, June 21, 2011,” the letter read.
“It has been an honor to serve the people of Queens and Brooklyn,” it closed.
With Weiner’s exit, the House has 432 occupied seats: 240 Republicans and 192 Democrats.
Besides his vacancy, there are two other empty seats: a Nevada position once held by now-Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican; and the California seat once home to Democrat Jane Harman, who resigned earlier this year to run the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Weiner, 46, widely believed to have been planning a run for mayor of New York City in 2013, hit the headlines May 28 when it was disclosed that someone using his Twitter account had sent a picture of a man’s bulging underpants to a college student in Seattle.
Weiner immediately claimed his account had been hacked, but at a June 6 press conference he tearfully acknowledged he had sent the photo. He also said he had engaged in inappropriate contact with about six other women through sites like Twitter and Facebook and occasionally over the phone.
Other explicit and embarrassing photos then emerged, including some of Weiner posing before mirrors in what appeared to be the US House of Representatives gym. The congressman, who appeared to have taken the photos with a cell phone camera, was naked in two of the pictures except for a strategically-placed towel.
