………DOJ quietly announced it had reached a plea deal with former CIA Director David Petraeus for leaking Top Secret/Secure Compartmented Information materials to his mistress, Paula Broadwell.This is a guy whose record seems to be more of an exercise in self-promotion than anything else, and it's pretty clear that he deliberately mishandled classified information because he wanted to help his girl friend, and it also clear that he lied to the FBI with the specific intent of obstructing an investigation, and the Department of Justice doesn't want any jail time.
Among the materials in the eight “Black Books” Petraeus shared with Broadwell were:…classified information regarding the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from high-level National Security Council meetings, and defendant DAVID HOWELL PETRAEUS’s discussions with the President of the United States of America.Petraeus kept those Black Books full of code word information including covert identities and conversations with the President “in a rucksack up there somewhere.”
The Black Books contained national defense information, including Top Secret/SCI and code word information.
Petreaus retained those Black Books after he signed his debriefing agreement upon leaving DOD, in which he attested “I give my assurance that there is no classified material in my possession, custody, or control at this time.” He kept those Black Books in an unlocked desk drawer.
For mishandling some of the most important secrets the nation has, Petraeus will plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Petraeus, now an employee of a top private equity firm, will be fined $40,000 and serve two years of probation.
He will not, however, be asked to plead guilty at all for lying to FBI investigators. In an interview on October 26, 2012, he told the FBI,(a) he had never provided any classified information to his biographer, and (b) he had never facilitated the provision of classified information to his biographer.
I hope that the judge goes a bit further than the Department of Justice.
Looks like he is going to get a Sandy Berger punishment
ReplyDeleteI am betting that someone without the connections of a Berger or Petraeus would get a far harsher punishment for doing the same crimes.