The Hollywood Reporter suggests that producers of a new documentary about scandal-prone former Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner have cut scenes damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
The cut scenes showed Huma Abedin, who is Weiner’s wife and also Clinton’s top aide, getting pressure to distance herself from Weiner to shield Clinton from scandal, the Reporter says.
The film Weiner, made by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, will premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this coming Sunday.
The Reporter wrote:
Distributors who saw the film before Sundance Selects and Showtime partnered to acquire it say the footage is explosive and potentially damaging to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (Abedin is Clinton’s closest adviser and a fixture on the campaign trail). Multiple parties who viewed early cuts of the documentary say Clinton’s team is seen trying to pressure Abedin to immediately cut ties with Weiner, fearing the scandal will hurt the secretary of state’s bid for the White House. (Abedin, who has become something of an obsession for the far right, remains married to Weiner and has a son with him.) The footage is said to offer the kind of rare window into the cutthroat machinations of a presidential campaign that is typically reserved for such fictitious shows as House of Cards.
But Kriegman, a former aide to Weiner, says there’s no mention of the Clinton campaign in the documentary. The Reporter continues:
Kriegman, who served as Weiner’s chief of staff for years before becoming a filmmaker, denies that Clinton’s team appears in the documentary, raising the question of whether it has been edited to expunge any fodder for the Republican Party.
The film’s premiere comes just days before the first Presidential primaries are due to begin and as candidate Clinton is facing a number of scandals related to Huma Abedin.
As Breitbart News reported in a detailed piece this week, Clinton-ally Media Matters for America struck back against a recent feature in Vanity Fair magazine about Abedin. The article confirmed claims that Huma Abedin has a direct association with Abdullah Omar Nasseef, who founded groups that the U.S. government says funded terrorists.
Additionally, a judge recently order Hillary Clinton to release emails from Huma Abedin that were sent via Clinton’s controversial private email server. The FBI has an ongoing investigation into that matter.
The filmmakers, despite ties to Weiner, are also said to have declined one distribution deal to avoid potential cuts to the film by Clinton supporters. The Hollywood Reporter:
In yet another twist in the labyrinthine tale, sources say Kriegman and Steinberg turned down an aggressive offer from CNN because they were worried that network chief Jeff Zucker might water down the unflattering look at Team Clinton (CNN declined to confirm whether or not it made an offer on the film). The New York-based filmmakers declined to discuss any issues surrounding the sale of the film or seemingly what’s in it.
Whatever the final version includes or omits will stoke interest far beyond Park City. When interviewed for this article, Kriegman and Steinberg said they were racing to finish the edit before the premiere. Weiner has not seen the film (nor does he have any editorial input) and has no plans to attend, though the onetime politician remains in touch with the duo, having sent them a thank-you note when their film was accepted into Sundance.
Breitbart News and founder Andrew Breitbart played a key role in the first sexting scandal that brought down Anthony Weiner as a congressman.
That began on Memorial Day weekend in 2012, when Weiner accidentally sent a photo of his crotch to a college student. After initially denying the story and actually going so far as accuse Andrew Breitbart of possible involvement, Weiner was forced to admit that he’s had multiple sexting partners beginning shortly after his marriage to Huma Abedin. He apologized to Andrew Breitbart.
The Weiners were close personal friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the former President even officiated at their wedding. Weiner is Jewish and Abedin is Muslim, something that Clinton made reference to at their vows, as The New YorkDaily News reported in July, 2010:
Rep. Anthony Weiner married his glamorous gal pal Huma Abedin in Long Island Saturday in a lavish ceremony officiated by former President Bill Clinton.
The power couple exchanged their “I do’s” inside the secluded Oheka Castle in Huntington.
Clinton jokingly said that marrying a politician can be tough because it’s “easy to distrust them, whatever their religion,” a source told the Daily News.
Breitbart News will be there at Sundance on Sunday to cover the film and audience reaction.
Follow Breitbart News lead investigative reporter and Citizen Journalism School founder Lee Stranahan on Twitter at @Stranahan.
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