Disgraced Democrat former congressman and registered sex offender Anthony Weiner has formally filed to run for the New York City Council.

On Friday, Weiner opened a campaign committee called Weiner 25. He then filed the paperwork to run as a Democrat for the 2nd District seat, which will be vacated next year by Carlina Rivera, who is term-limited. The seat represents several neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan.

Despite taking these significant steps and being scheduled to speak at a forum for Downtown Independent Democrats on Thursday, Weiner, 60, insisted to the AP that he is "still exploring" his options and may not actually campaign after all.

Weiner made similar statements to the New York Post, claiming that the committee he formed is truly "exploratory."

"[They] made a precondition of participating in their candidate forum that you had to have an open committee, so here I am," he explained.

'The things in my past, the things about my addiction, the things about my acting out, the things about my background — it’s a lot, it’s a lot.'

Weiner is no stranger to the council. He served on it from 1992 until 1998, when he was elected to Congress to replace then-newly elected Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Once in federal office, Weiner quickly made a name for himself and was eventually seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party. That view changed in 2011 when he was forced to resign because he had been caught sexting several females, including one minor.

At the time, he was married to Huma Abedin, a close adviser to Hillary Clinton. In December of that year, Abedin gave birth to their son, Jordan.

Two years later, Weiner tried to stage a political comeback by running for mayor of New York. However, yet another sexting scandal involving the online pseudonym "Carlos Danger" sank his campaign before it ever really began, and he was trounced in the Democratic primary.

Weiner's disturbing sexting proclivities made national headlines again in 2016 after the FBI began investigating Clinton's emails and discovered that Weiner had been sending explicit photos to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.

News of the photos tarnished Clinton's presidential campaign and apparently ruined Weiner's marriage to Abedin. It also prompted further investigation into Weiner, who eventually pled guilty to one felony count of transferring obscene material to a minor.

Weiner served 18 months for the crime. He was released in 2019, when a judge ordered him to register as a sex offender for at least the next two decades. The judge labeled Weiner a level 1 offender, meaning that he poses a low risk of reoffending, the AP reported.

Since then, Weiner has begun hosting a weekly radio program. During an episode last month, he discussed his interest in returning to public office, slamming his fellow Democrats for inadequately responding to the recent resurgence of the Republican Party.

"We’re at a moment that we Democrats, we seem like we come into knife fights carrying library books all the time," he said.

While he vaguely acknowledged that he comes with a lot of baggage — "The things in my past, the things about my addiction, the things about my acting out, the things about my background — it’s a lot, it’s a lot" — he indicated to his radio audience that he has more to offer: "I love doing this job on the radio, but I want to be of service."

Should he fully commit to campaigning for the council seat, he will face stiff competition in the Democratic primary. Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, Manhattan Community Board 3 Chair Andrea Gordillo, and Community Board 3 Vice Chair Sarah Batchu announced their respective candidacies long ago and already have a strong head start on fundraising.

Epstein said he'd welcome more people in the field. "Anyone who wants to run should run for sure," he told City & State New York. "That is the democratic process."

Gordillo and Batchu, however, did not try to hide their disdain for Weiner or his attempt at yet another political comeback. Gordillo called Weiner a "failed New York and Washington politician," while Batchu was even more blunt: "Trump wins, and now every creepy, washed-up politician thinks they can make a comeback. My constituents deserve better than to serve as the audience for a disgraced politician’s redemption tour."

Weiner did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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