Former CIA chief agrees to plead guilty after scandal with mistress

Retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in the case against him for revealing classified information to his mistress, thus avoiding a trial.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that Petraeus had reached an agreement to avoid prolonging the judicial process against him under way in a North Carolina court, admitting to the unauthorized possession of classified information.

The charges, which in other cases where people leaked classified information have been rigorously pursued by the U.S. government, carry with them the payment of a $40,000 fine by Petraeus, one of the most highly regarded U.S. soldiers. He will not serve any jail time.

The former fourstar general, who headed the Armed Forces Central Command and commanded U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned as CIA chief in November 2012 when his relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, began to be investigated by the FBI.

Federal prosecutors said Petraeus in August 2011 provided Broadwell with notebooks detailing his yearlong tenure as the top commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan. The notebooks contained assorted classified information, a fact of which the general was well aware, although it did not appear he was trying to harm national security but rather help Broadwell prepare her biography of him, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.”

After acknowledging that he had made a huge mistake in providing the materials to his mistress, Petraeus in 2013 began working for an investment fund and is also a university professor.