WASHINGTON -- David Petraeus has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the CIA.
Petraeus agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison, but prosecutors will recommend two years of probation and a $40,000 fine.
Petraeus is a retired four-star general who was once discussed as a possible candidate for vice president or even president. He led the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the architect of a counterinsurgency strategy that at one time seemed a model for future warfare.
The plea deal ends two years of uncertainty and allows Petraeus to focus on his post-government career as a partner in a private-equity firm and a speaker on national security issues. Even while under investigation, he advised the White House on Iraq and terrorism issues.
The mistress, Paula Broadwell, is a former Army Reserve officer who had an affair with Petraeus in 2011 while she was interviewing him for a biography.
During one of the interviews for that book, Broadwell asked about his "black books," the notebooks that contained handwritten classified notes about official meetings, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and the names of cover officers.
"They are highly classified, some of them," Petraeus replied, according to an excerpt from the taped interview that's included in court documents. Three weeks later, Petraeus emailed Broadwell and agreed to share the black books. He gave them to her the next day.
When questioned by the FBI, Petraeus denied providing Broadwell with classified information. "These statements were false," federal prosecutors wrote. "Defendant David Howell Petraeus then and there knew that he previously shared the black books with his biographer."
A lawyer for Petraeus did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Petraeus resigned as the director of the CIA in 2012. At the time, he acknowledged the affair but denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The plea deal spares Petraeus a high-profile trial where embarrassing details about the affair would have been presented to the jury and made public. Petraeus is still married to Holly Petraeus.
Petraeus received most of his accolades for his service in Iraq. He was credited with directing the so-called surge of U.S. forces in 2007 that pushed militants of al-Qaida out of the country, stabilizing Iraq and allowing the withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
In 2010, President Barack Obama asked Petraeus to apply the same strategy in Afghanistan, where the Taliban had gained significant territory. His counterinsurgency measures that time had some success, but not nearly as much as in Iraq.
Nevertheless, he was revered by members of both parties, and Obama tapped him in 2011 to lead the CIA.
Since leaving the CIA, Petraeus has carved out a lucrative career as a partner in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and in academia as a paid public speaker. He has taught at some of the nation's most prestigious universities, including Harvard.
Petraeus' friends and allies have been highly critical of the Justice Department for keeping the investigation open so long. Republicans in Congress accused Attorney General Eric Holder of using the investigation to silence Petraeus. On the other side, some investigators were privately critical of the Justice Department for not moving more aggressively against Petraeus.
FBI agents discovered the affair when they investigated cyberstalking allegations that had been made by Jill Kelley, one of Petraeus' friends. Kelley of Tampa, Fla., told the FBI that an anonymous person had been sending her threatening emails that told her to stay away from Petraeus.
The agents determined that the emails were coming from Broadwell. As they investigated Broadwell, they learned of the affair and found evidence that Petraeus had shared classified information with her.
Information for this article was contributed by Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times.
A Section on 03/04/2015