Prosecutors Seek Felony Charges for Petraeus

There has got to be a lot more to this story of David Petraeus, the celebrated general and former director of the CIA, than meets the eye:

The F.B.I. and Justice Department prosecutors have recommended bringing felony charges against retired Gen. David H. Petraeus for providing classified information to his former mistress while he was director of the C.I.A., officials said, leaving Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to decide whether to seek an indictment that could send the pre-eminent military officer of his generation to prison.

The Justice Department investigation stems from an affair Mr. Petraeus had with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer who was writing his biography, and focuses on whether he gave her access to his C.I.A. email account and other highly classified information. F.B.I. agents discovered classified documents on her computer after Mr. Petraeus resigned from the C.I.A. in 2012 when the affair became public.

Mr. Petraeus, a retired four star-general who served as commander of American forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has said he never provided classified information to Ms. Broadwell, and has indicated to the Justice Department that he has no interest in a plea deal that would spare him an embarrassing trial. A lawyer for Mr. Petraeus, Robert B. Barnett, said Friday he had no comment.

How likely is it that the man who at one point posed a possibly potent challenge to President Obama’s re-election changes had he chosen to return from the Middle East and run for the GOP nomination, and then was stashed in Langley by that same Obama administration in order to get him out of the way, and then was suddenly felled by a sex scandal, could be in such trouble? Somebody in the White House plays very. very rough.