Former CIA Director David Petraeus To Be Sentenced Tomorrow

The US general David Petraeus and the visiting Barack Obama fly from Baghdad airport to the Green Zone in a helicopter (July 21, 2008). Photograph: Reuters

Kevin Maurer, Daily Beast: How The David Petraeus Prosecution Backfired

The former director of the CIA is getting off easy after leaking classified material to his mistress. Other leakers aren’t so lucky.

The sordid tale of marital infidelity, cyber-stalking, and spilled secrets surrounding former CIA director David Petraeus is scheduled to come to a close Thursday, when the former four-star general is sentenced for his crimes.

But Petraeus’s punishment will likely have lasting ramifications on future leak cases, national security lawyers said. They argue the government is cutting its own throat by offering him a more lenient sentence in the wake of harsher penalties to other leakers and creating a double standard that can be exploited by defense attorneys in future cases.

“This is a horrible choice by the government,” said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer for more than two decades. “I think it is going to have a negative impact. The judges who are going to be truly objective are going to look at the Petraeus case. Going forward, it is going to hurt the government’s cases.”

WNU Editor: On the one hand .... he is lucky .... he is not going to prison for the next 20 years. He is also lucky that he has a well-paid job that will take care of all of his personal needs for the rest of his life. On the downside .... he has an ego, and he will have to come to terms one day that the enormous respect and admiration that he once had is no longer there.