Posted on 04/23/2015 12:21:00 PM PDT by markomalley
In a humbling chapter of an exemplary career, David Petraeus – a West Point grad who went on to command U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming the nation’s top spy – pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to sharing classified information.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler sentenced Petraeus to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine, throwing out a recommended $40,000 fine because of the seriousness of the charges and to deter others. He called Petraeus’ actions a “serious lapse of judgment” that stood “in stark contrast to 37 years of achievement.”
As Keesler moved through the methodical proceedings, Petraeus answered questions in strong voice, one accustomed to addressing troops and congressmen.
“I want to apologize for the pain my actions caused,” Petraeus said.
Although none of the sensitive material got into the public domain, Acting U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland said that Petraeus committed a serious offense. “He was entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive security,” she said. “The defendant betrayed that trust.”
During sentencing, Petraeus was told he could travel internationally with the approval of his probation officer. As he has emerged from the early days of the scandal, Petraeus has become a popular name on the speaking circuit.
Patraeus was sentenced in Charlotte, the city where the security breach was discovered as part of an unrelated 2012 investigation to anonymous and disparaging emails sent to Jill Kelley of Tampa, Fla. She was friends with Petraeus and a social connection to other high-ranking military brass stationed at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base on Florida’s west coast.
Within weeks, the FBI traced the emails to Paula Broadwell of Charlotte, another West Point graduate and an Army Reserve officer who had recently written the biography “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” Broadwell, investigators concluded, considered Kelley a romantic rival to Petraeus’ affections.
When advised of the situation, the CIA director acknowledged an improper personal relationship with Broadwell that had developed during her research for the biography. Both were married, and Petraeus resigned as CIA director.
Using “Tampa Angel” and at least one other pseudonym, Broadwell sent some of her emails from the old Dilworth Coffee shop on East Boulevard.
In June 2012, agents searched Broadwell’s Dilworth home and found classified information and other data on her computers that went beyond her security clearance as a major in the Army Reserve.
Court documents say Petraeus shared eight notebooks with Broadwell that he compiled in Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say the books held everything from secret codes and the identities of covert officers, to war strategy and notes from National Security Council meetings. Broadwell kept the books for at least four days beginning in August 2011, prosecutors say. FBI agents seized the books during an April 2013 raid on Petraeus’ home.
Petraeus lied to investigators about both having classified information and sharing it with Broadwell, according to court documents. Prosecutors say none of the classified material appeared in Broadwell’s book.
Debate on sentence
Critics say the retired general is getting off light, given how zealously the Obama administration has pursued government leaks. By comparison, CIA analyst and case officer John Kiriakou, the whistleblower who revealed the secret CIA torture program, is serving a 30-month sentence. Open-government groups say President Barack Obama’s lieutenants have prosecuted more leakers than the rest of U.S. administrations combined.
“It’s hard to reconcile cases like that, and it leads to the conclusion that senior officials are held to a different and more forgiving standard than others,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.
Petraeus resigned three days after Obama’s 2012 re-election. Up to then, the retired four-star general was among the most respected military leaders of modern times. He was sometimes mentioned as a future presidential or vice presidential candidate.
“We are praying for you general,” said the Rev. Raymond Johnson, 65, a Vietnam veteran from Marion, S.C., who was outside the federal courthouse on Trade Street when Petraeus arrived at 1:05 p.m.
No charges against Broadwell
Broadwell did not attend the sentencing, nor did she respond to an Observer request for comment. But she did post an image on her Twitter feed Thursday that needed no elaboration: a picture of a tunnel with light visible at the end.
Broadwell was not charged in connection with the emails she sent to Kelley and others. In theory, she still could be accused by a civilian or military court for possessing classified information. But given the light sentence proposed for Petraeus, legal experts have said it’s unlikely that the Justice Department or the Pentagon will push for her prosecution.
That Broadwell was working as a writer when she received the classified material further complicates any possible case. Media and law experts say the government has not mounted a successful prosecution against a journalist possessing classified information in decades.
Broadwell, who met Petraeus as a Harvard University graduate student in 2006, is now writing about such topics as personal fitness and human trafficking for the online newsletter Charlotte Agenda. Since arriving in Charlotte, she has also publicly championed returning veterans and Wounded Warriors.
In May 2013, she apologized for the affair during a brief TV interview.
The corruption has now surpassed “third world”.
I was wondering how they would handle this.
And Hillary skates. The picture of her that Drudge has up now reminds me of a shark.
This makes me sad. I always liked Petraeus.
Someone should have told him,
IT’S A TRAP!
A slap on the hand, nothing more.
So he gets off with an exceeding mild sentence. What did he give to the Obama machine in return?
I hope she was worth it.
He got burned for disagreeing with Obama.
BINGO!! We have a winner! this is the only reason this happened to him.
If I had done was Petraeus did, I’d be in jail and unemployable.
And what about Hillary Clinton b*tch?
How much will Obama and Holder pay for refusing to obey Federal law?
And this light sentence will be repeated over and over when Bergdhal gets a slap on the wrist. You can count on it.
Ruined his career, sold out the country, sold out the troops, ruined his family, all for a piece of tail that wasn’t all that hot.
Ping
OK .... so exactly WHO in the white house/white hut HAS A SECURITY CLEARANCE..... and WHO READS OR HAS ACCESS TO THE DAILY PRESIDENTIAL INTEL BRIEF AND OTHER CLASSIFIED INFO... HOW ABOUT THE SQUAT THRUST VALERIE JARRETT... DOES SHE HAVE A SECURITY CLEARANCE... ???? dont think so since she ahs NO OFFICIAL POSITION OTHER THAN HAVING 35 TAXPAYER FUNDED STAFF AND BEING THE “FIRST FRIEND” OF THE BUMBLER MUZZIE COMMIE TRAITOR...... CASE CLOSED.... LOCK EM UP AND CART THEM AWAY..... the petraeus is another case of selective enforcement and revenge..... this admin is a criminal fraud perpetrated on the people..... willingly so... THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD NOT PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT...
OK SO HE GETS FINED AND CARLYLE ADDS ON THE FINE VIA THEIR NEXT CRONY KICKBACK CONTRACT.... big deal
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