Former CIA director David Petraeus will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information, allowing him to skip a public trial over allegations that he gave classified documents to his mistress while serving as head of the intelligence agency.
Petraeus reached the plea deal with the Justice Department on Tuesday. The Justice Department issued the following statement:
If found guilty, Petraeus faces a maximum of one year in prison. As investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler writes, that penalty amounts to a “hand-slap” for obstruction of justice.
His affair with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography, came to light in November 2012 after FBI agents discovered he had given her access to classified documents that she was not authorized to see.
Petraeus resigned from his CIA post shortly after the scandal broke, after just over a year on the job. He now works as chairman of the KKR Global Institute, a part of the private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Even as he faced possible charges from the FBI and the Justice Department, Petraeus retained the public support of President Barack Obama and several members of Congress.
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