Feinstein: Leave Petraeus Alone, He's 'Suffered Enough'

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Gen. David Petraeus “has suffered enough” and shouldn’t be pursued for prosecution by the Justice Department.

“He’s the four-star general of our generation. I saw him in Iraq. He put together the Army field manual. He put together the awakening and how it worked out. He, I think, is a very brilliant man,” Feinstein told CNN.

“People aren’t perfect. He made a mistake. He lost his job as CIA director because of it. I mean, how much do you want to punish somebody? Now, I don’t know whether he directly gave material to her or not. I know she had access to classified data by her own classification. So, it’s murky.”

Petraeus stepped down from the CIA in 2012 after federal investigators determined he gave classified information to mistress Paula Broadwell.

“But, be that as it may, it’s done. It’s over. And he’s retired. He’s lost his job,” Feinstein added. “I mean, how much does government want?”

Attorney General Eric Holder said he wouldn’t comment on “an ongoing matter.”

“I will say that, frequently, those things that are leaked to the media are done so by people who are not in a position to know, and are frequently inaccurate,” he told CNN.

“We have done this investigation, I think, in an appropriate way. An appropriate determination will be done. And it will be done in a way that I think the American people will ultimately decide was fair to everyone who was involved.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who took the gavel from Feinstein when the Senate switched to GOP control, noted that President Obama said in his announcement of Petraeus’ resignation that the affair “did not reach a level that put national security in jeopardy.”

“And I think the statute of the law says it has to reach that for there to be a prosecution. I’ll let the FBI and the Justice Department work through this. But I always will go back to what the president told us when he announced the resignation of David Petraeus,” Burr told ABC.

“The burden of proof is on the Bureau and on the Justice Department, I think, to present to Americans where it was and why the president was wrong.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) called it a violation of Petraeus’ rights for the DOJ to leak the investigation information.

“This man is unique. He is one of the great leaders. Ask anybody who served under him. He — with the — he was an architect of the surge which turned Iraq around. He may have saved thousands of American — young Americans’ lives,” McCain told CNN. “And, obviously, he deserves better treatment than have a leak to The New York Times about a recommendation, which is a violation of his rights and any citizen’s rights.”