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Chris Jenks on the Petraeus Plea

Benjamin Wittes
Friday, March 6, 2015, 8:28 AM
The estimable Chris Jenks writes in from Australia with the following thoughts on my piece yesterday on the David Petraeus plea:
Appreciated your comments on Petraeus. One additional factor which resonates with me and I think most military folks is that Petraeus was a general court martial convening authority for a decade or more. He decided what cases were referred to a court-martial. He decided on the terms of plea deals.

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The estimable Chris Jenks writes in from Australia with the following thoughts on my piece yesterday on the David Petraeus plea:
Appreciated your comments on Petraeus. One additional factor which resonates with me and I think most military folks is that Petraeus was a general court martial convening authority for a decade or more. He decided what cases were referred to a court-martial. He decided on the terms of plea deals. He decided what post trial clemency should or should not be given.  He has sent people to jail and ended careers for far less than what he did. Also absent from the discussion was how apparently the Army was not interested in recalling him to active duty and taking action against him for misconduct that occurred while on active duty. Instead, he will continue to receive 4 star general retired pay, literally the most [money] anyone in the US military could potentially receive. Personally, I would have liked to have seen the Army recall him to active duty, charge him, and then allow [him] to retire as, say, a 2 or 3 star and without a clearance.

Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.

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