A State Department official's complaints about email stalking launched the months-long criminal
inquiry that led to Paula Broadwell, a woman romantically linked to former Gen. David Petraeus.
He is now getting off with a tsk-tsk and a fine for leaking secret information.
Marcy Wheeler at ExposeFacts writes
David Petraeus Gets Hand-Slap for Leaking, Two Point Enhancement for Obstruction of Justice:
As a supine Congress sitting inside a scaffolded dome applauded Benjamin Netanyahu calling to reject a peace deal with Iran, 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.
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.
The Black Books contained national defense information, including Top Secret/SCI and code word information.
|
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. |
For lying to the FBI — a crime that others go to prison for for months and years — Petraeus will just get a two point enhancement on his sentencing guidelines. The Department of Justice basically completely wiped away the crime of covering up his crime of leaking some of the country’s most sensitive secrets to his mistress.
When John Kiriakou pled guilty on October 23, 2012 to crimes having to do with sharing a single covert officer’s identity just days before Petraeus would lie to the FBI about sharing, among other things, numerous covert officers’ identities with his mistress, Petraeus sent out a memo to the CIA stating,
Oaths do matter, and there are indeed consequences for those who believe they are above the laws that protect our fellow officers and enable American intelligence agencies to operate with the requisite degree of secrecy. |
David Petraeus is now proof of what a lie that statement was.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—The Party of Anybody But Lincoln:
With the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering winding down this weekend, you might think that calling John Edwards a 'faggot' would be the signature event of the conference. But while that clip will probably result mostly in more undeserved attention for the right's favorite harridan, there's another message from this week's events that is interesting for what it has to say about how these people view themselves. And where better to go for that view than the Fox News of papers, the Washington Times. After noting the ability of Giuliani to obscure his feelings over all the things that conservatives have been decrying for the last decade (unlike Santa's pal, this Rudolph spreads fog), Rev. Moon's paper notes the one thing that really brought the crowd down.
In interviews afterward, some attendees said Mr. Giuliani lost momentum when he heaped lavish praise on Abraham Lincoln. |
That's right. Conservatives can put up with differences on abortion, gay rights, and whether or not its okay for your mistress to live at the White House. What they can't stand is talking about Abraham Lincoln. What's bugging them?
While many conservatives regard the Civil War president as the spiritual founder of the Republican Party, others deeply resent him as a man who ruthlessly suspended constitutional rights and freedoms in order to militarily challenge the South's belief in its right to secede. |
A note to the constitutional scholars on the right. If it's personal rights you're worried about, the constitution specifically allows suspension of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion or invasion. But of course, that can't be what's bothering conservatives, or they wouldn't be so eager to support Bush's usurpation of those rights without justification. It's the last part of the quote that's at the heart of the matter: conservatives are still not over the Civil War. Excuse me, the War of Northern Aggression.
Tweet of the Day
Great point from @fmkaplan: By Netanyahu's criteria, every arms control agreement ever signed was unacceptable.
http://t.co/...
— @saletan
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: the Netanyahu speech & the rash of TX GunFAIL.
Greg Dworkin had our first Ebola update in some time, including nurse Nina Pham's lawsuit against her hospital. A brief wrap-up of the DHS debacle, plus all the procedural fine points you won't hear about elsewhere.
Armando joins in to discuss the Clinton e-mails, and
King v. Burwell legal backgrounders on
Chevron deference and constitutional avoidance. Special training for armed moms. And speaking of moms, here's one company president's apology to moms she'd discriminated against in the past.
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