Petraeus to be sentenced Thursday

Former CIA Director David Petraeus will be sentenced Thursday afternoon for giving classified information to his mistress.

He will appear in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., at 2 p.m. Thursday to plead guilty to a single count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material.

{mosads}Prosecutors agreed to recommend that Petraeus receive probation instead of prison time as part of his plea deal. The judge in the case does not have to follow the government’s recommendation.

Petraeus’s criminal charges trace back to his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell. While she was researching her book on Petraeus, federal investigators allege, Petraeus provided her with diaries from his time as a military commander in the Middle East that contained confidential information.

The small black books allegedly contained the identities of covert officers and notes from his conversations with the president.

No material from the diaries ended up in Broadwell’s book, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, according to the government.

The deal helps Petraeus avoid a trial that could have aired details about the affair, which led to the end of his career in public service when he stepped down from the CIA in November 2012.

It also concludes the public unraveling of one of the military’s most prominent and respected officers. He developed counterinsurgency tactics that became the military’s standard and commanded U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

And before the scandal, he was widely considered a potential contender for higher office, including the presidency.