Former CIA Director Petraeus Let Off with a Misdemeanor for ‘Mishandling’ Classified Info, Won’t Do Time

Not that this should really be a surprise to anyone, but retired general and former CIA director David H. Petraeus has reached a deal with federal prosecutors which will allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for giving Paula Broadwell, the general’s biographer and former mistress, eight so-called “black books” filled with classified national security info. All felony charges will be dropped.

Although the Justice Department confirmed the affair and information leak in the summer of 2012, they withheld information about it until just after the presidential election. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper was informed late on election day. He later asked Petraeus to step down.

The books were supposedly given to Broadwell, now a United States Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, who previously wrote his biography [amazon text=All In: The Education of General David Petraeus&asin=B00F6IM5CW]. No classified information was included in the final book.

Curiously, just a month before the affair was announced, Broadwell had given a speech in Denver where she seemed to know a lot of unreleased information on the Benghazi attack.

“Now I don’t know if a lot of you heard this,” [Broadwell] replied, “but the CIA annex had actually—had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that’s still being vetted.”

…The CIA Sunday denied her claim that prisoners were held at the annex, which has not been reported elsewhere. (source)

This, again, highlights the fact that there’s one “justice system” (pronounced Just-US) for guys like Petraeus, and another for everyone else. “The deal is yet another example of a senior official treated leniently for the sorts of violations that lower-level officials are punished severely for,” The Intercept reported.

As The New York Times noted today, the deal “allows Mr. Petraeus to focus on his lucrative post-government career as a partner in a private equity firm and a worldwide speaker on national security issues.”

Lying to federal prosecutors has garnered others months to over a year in prison.

So Petraeus gets to walk away with no long and revealing trial public trial, no felony convictions, no jail time whatsoever, and a $40,000 fine after knowingly lying to FBI investigators that he had never handed over the books.

Think about how much trouble the average person gets into just for jaywalking in this country, meanwhile the head of the CIA can leak sensitive, classified info to the woman he is cheating on his wife with, then willfully lie to authorities about it, and that’s basically swept under the rug with little fanfare.

It’s a wonder he left his job as CIA head; someone so patently dishonest across the board in every realm of life is perfect for the job.