Trump Considers Petraeus Who Pled Guilty To Classified Leaking For Top Position - by Joe Conason

[DonViejo]

November 19, 2016 12:14 am


Constantly ranting against the woman he smeared as “Crooked Hillary,” Donald Trump insisted that her alleged disclosures of classified information — although unintentional, harmless, and ultimately deemed innocent — were serious felonies for which she ought to be sent to prison. “Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before,” he sputtered. “We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”

But now Trump evidently believes that David Petraeus — who pled guilty to charges that he intentionally revealed classified information to his mistress — could be trusted to assume the highest position in the Pentagon or perhaps the State Department, according to news outlets. The retired general, who commanded US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before serving as CIA director under President Obama, reportedly came very close to a felony conviction that would have sent him to prison for leaking classified documents to his mistress.

FBI investigators and Justice Department prosecutors wanted to indict Petraeus, and he only escaped that humiliating fate through a plea bargain — a deal achieved, ironically enough, by David Kendall, the same Washington attorney who represented Hillary Clinton.

When Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation from the CIA four years ago, the ostensible reason was the exposure of an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. But a lengthy FBI investigation revealed that he had leaked classified documents to her, which were found on her computer, and that he had also given her access to his CIA email account. The matter never went to trial, so the Justice Department presented no evidence concerning the nature of those documents or the damage their disclosure might have inflicted on US national security.

more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-considering-petraeus-pled-guilty-classified-leaking-top-position/

[Arkansas Granny]

1. It seems like he is deliberately choosing the most controversial candidates he can for his Cabinet.

He's not scraping the bottom of the barrel, he's using that as his starting point!

[madaboutharry]

2. It feels like we are in the middle of a George Orwell novel.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. or Kafka......n/t

[madaboutharry]

9. Agree.

Maybe more like Kafka.

[kebob]

3. But of Course

Trump thinks irony is something you press shirts with.

[trof]

4. I've read that the 'top tier' people won't work for him.

They don't want that blot on their resume's.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Well, at least he didn't use emails to betray his country.

I guess that makes it alright.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Short attention span--he uses Twitter instead. n/t

[Wounded Bear]

8. How to betray your country in 140 characters or less....

[TeamPooka]

10. The General is an adulterer, like Trump, so he's Donald's kind of guy. nt