Republican leaders have gone out of their way over the past two weeks to minimize former CIA director David Petraeus's criminal misuse of classified information as President-elect Donald Trump considers the former general for the role of Secretary of State. Petraeus, who gave top-secret compartmented information to his biographer and lover, Paula Broadwell, also outed the names of 10 covert CIA operatives to her; he later lied about it to the FBI.
There were no felony espionage charges for Petraeus. He wasn't charged under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act like I was. He wasn't charged with the felony of making a false statement to the FBI. He was, and remains, part of the "in" crowd, a friend of the president and the president-elect, and a favorite general of the Republican establishment.
Unlike national security whistleblowers during the Obama administration, Petraeus was not charged with multiple felonies. He instead took a plea to one misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information, despite the fact that the Justice Department said that Petraeus's leak, if disclosed, would have caused "exceptionally grave damage" to the national security. The leak included notebooks containing codeword information on top-secret intelligence programs, information about war strategy, the identities of covert officers, and notes on Petraeus's private meetings with the president. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to only 18 months of unsupervised probation and fined $100,000. The day after his sentencing, he traveled to Iraq on a classified consulting mission for the White House.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden told Katie Couric recently that the information Petraeus leaked to his girlfriend was "far more sensitive" than the information Snowden had released to the public. And indeed, Snowden's revelations met the legal definition of whistleblowing: "Bringing to light evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to the public health or public safety." Petraeus leaked his information to get laid.
Petraeus's criminal behavior hasn't stopped Republicans from lining up behind the possibility that Trump will name him Secretary of State. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said of Petraeus, "I think people make mistakes in life and you move on." Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Petraeus would be, "an extraordinary pick," and described him as "one of the most uniquely qualified" people Trump could choose.
Still, Petraeus is a convicted criminal, just like I am. Sure, he's patriotic, he had a great career, he devoted his life to public service, and he worked hard over the course of years to help ensure the security of Americans. But so did I. So did Tom Drake, Stephen Kim, Jeffrey Sterling, Chelsea Manning, and Ed Snowden. The rest of us are victims of the Obama administration's use of the Espionage Act as a political hammer to silence dissent in national security. We didn't have the president or senators fawning over us. We didn't have the attorney general backing off in our cases because of past heroic acts.
But justice is justice. Right is right.
If Petraeus is going to get the Secretary of State position, or any other senior position in government, he will likely have to be pardoned, either by Obama or by Trump once he takes office. That pardon should extend to the rest of us.
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