Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Disproportionate penalties given to two CIA employees who leaked secrets

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Disproportionate penalties given to two CIA employees who leaked secrets raise a question about the fairness of American justice.

On April 23 a judge sentenced retired general and former CIA director David H. Petraeus to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for admitting he had provided highly classified notes of his official meetings, U.S. war strategy, intelligence capabilities and the names of covert CIA officers to his mistress, who was writing a biography of him. Petraeus also lied to the FBI. The fine was comparable to what Petraeus earns for one speech. He was permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor as part of a deal with the Justice Department.

On Monday, a judge sentenced former CIA employee Jeffrey A. Sterling to three and a half years in prison for espionage. He was convicted of nine violations of the Espionage Act by providing New York Times reporter and author James Risen information about a CIA program on Iran that the reporter had used in a 2006 book.

It’s unfair that Sterling will go to jail for years while Petraeus gets a symbolic fine and no time behind bars.