WASHINGTON: Former CIA Director David Petraeus has reached a plea deal with prosecutors after admitting that he shared classified information with his mistress, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

“The plea agreement and corresponding statement of facts, both signed by the defendant, indicate that he will plead guilty to the one-count criminal Information,” a Justice Department spokesman said in a statement.

DOJ spokesman Marc Raimondi said that under the arrangement, Mr Petraeus, who is also a retired general of the US Army, should receive two year’s probation and pay a $40,000 fine. However, a judge must still accept the agreement before it becomes effective.

The Department of Justice assigned the case to US District Court Judge Robert Conrad in the Western District of North Carolina.

The arrangement allows him to avoid a trial that could make public more details of his extramarital affair with his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.

The general also communicated with Ms Broadwell when he was commanding US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

The DOJ said in a document filed with the court that Gen Petraeus had kept small black books, which contained classified information, while he was commanding US forces in Afghanistan.

Instead of turning them over to Department of Defence archivists, he gave those to Ms Broadwell who was then writing his biography.

The Justice Department said the general “unlawfully and knowingly removing such documents and materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents and materials at unauthorised locations”.

The department, however, acknowledged that no classified material appeared in the biography, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.”

In a signed statement, the retired general admitted to making false statements to the FBI about providing classified information to Ms Broadwell.

But the Justice Department also said that Mr Petraeus had lied to FBI agents about his relationship with her.

An FBI investigation revealed the affair between Mr Petraeus and Ms Broadwell continued after he moved to Washington and became CIA’s director. He was forced to step down as CIA director in November 2012, when the affair became public.

The affair was a major disappointment for right wing politicians who saw Mr Petraeus as a rising star. He led US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was hailed as one of the great military minds of his time.

Some Republicans saw him as a potential presidential candidate.

But his possible career in politics ended when US federal authorities discovered the affair.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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