United States of America v. David Petraeus

District of Columbia - The United States of America charged former CIA directory and four-star general David Petraeus with mishandling classified materials.



Petraeus resigned from the CIA director job after it was disclosed that he was having an affair with his biographer.



The Government asserted by Petraeus shared his highly classified "black books" with Paula Broadwell for her use in writing, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."



Petraeus denied sharing the materials with Broadwell when interviewed by the F.B.I., which is a crime in its own right.



The criminal Information charged the defendant with one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1924.



A total of eight such books (hereinafter the "Black Books") encompassed the period of defendant David Howell Petraeus's ISAF Command and collectively contained classified information regarding the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from high-level National Security Council meetings, and defendant David Howell Petraeus's discussions with the President of the United States of America.



The Black Books contained national defense information, including Top Secret/SCI and code word information.



Petraeus and Broadwell talked about the Black Books in August of 2011, court papers say, relating this exchange:



Biographer: "By the way, where are your black books? We never went through...

Petraeus: "They're in a rucksack up there somewhere."

Biographer: "Okay ... You avoiding that? You gonna look through 'em first?"

Petraeus: "Umm, well, they're really – I mean they are highly classified, some of them. They don't have it on it, but



I mean there's code word stuff in there."



The criminal information filed in federal court in North Carolina states that between August 2011 and April 5, 2013, Petraeus did "unlawfully and knowingly'' remove classified materials and retained them at "unauthorized'' locations.

General Petraeus pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials. He will be sentenced at a later date. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison but it is unlikely that the general will serve any jail time. Prosecutors will recommend two years of probation and a $40,000.00 fine.