U.S. federal judge sentences Petraeus to probation for leak

Former CIA chief David Petraeus was sentenced Thursday to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for sharing classified information in 2011 with biographer Paula Broadwell, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Petraeus, who led the CIA after retiring from the U.S. Army as a fourstar general, appeared for sentencing before U.S. District Judge David Keesler in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The former U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a single federal misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material.

Court documents indicate Petraeus also admitted to having lied to the CIA and the FBI about classified documents in his possession.

While the plea deal called for two years’ probation and a $40,000 fine, Judge Keesler said he increased the amount of the financial penalty to “reflect seriousness of the offense.”

Petraeus stepped down as CIA director in November 2012, acknowledging the affair with Broadwell, whose flattering biography of the general, “All In: The Education of David Petraeus,” had come out earlier that year.