Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin to settle divorce privately

NEW YORK (AP) - Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and disgraced former lawmaker Anthony Weiner have decided to negotiate their divorce privately.

The couple was supposed to appear before a Manhattan judge Wednesday, but the judge said both sides had agreed to discontinue the case. Abedin filed a divorce from Weiner in May and listed it as "contested," which meant they had to negotiate in front of a judge. But now the parties can re-file as "uncontested" and won't have to make their discussion public.

"In order to reduce any impact of these proceedings on their child, the parties have decided to reach a settlement swiftly and privately," Abedin's lawyer Charles Fox Miller said in statement. Weiner's lawyer echoed the statement.

The couple has a 6-year-old son. Weiner reported to prison in November to serve a 21-month sentence for sexting with a 15-year-old girl.

Weiner, a Democrat, resigned his U.S. House seat in 2011 amid a sexting controversy involving women, only to have new allegations doom his 2013 run for New York mayor.

Abedin became ensnared in the Clinton email probe. Then-FBI Director James Comey announced in late October 2016 that he was reopening the investigation of the former Democratic presidential nominee's use of a private computer server after emails between Clinton and Abedin were found on Weiner's computer amid the sexting probe. The FBI concluded that neither Weiner nor Abedin had committed a crime in their handling of the email.

Clinton has called Comey's intervention "the determining factor" in her defeat.