Report:
Trump considering controversial Obama administration official for secretary of
state
For several months on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump blasted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the way she handled classified information during her tenure as secretary of state. Now, Trump is considering appointing a controversial Obama administration figure who pled guilty to mishandling classified information to fill the post of top diplomat.
According to Bloomberg,
Trump has been taken aback by the response to the Mitt Romney trial balloon and
plans to meet meet in New York today with retired Gen. David Petraeus, who
served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Barack
Obama. Petraeus was widely credited with improving the military situation in
Iraq and Afghanistan under former President George W. Bush, and he was confirmed
as director of central intelligence with a unanimous vote in the
Senate. However, Petraeus ultimately resigned in disgrace from the post
after it was revealed that he inappropriately allowed his biographer — with
whom he was having an affair — to access to classified documents.
Petraeus was criminally charged as a result of the incident and
as part of a plea dealadmitted
to inappropriately accessing and storing classified information, as well as
lying to FBI and CIA investigators during the course of the investigation. He
agreed to pay a $100,000 fine, serve two years of probation and resigned his
post at the CIA.
If Trump does tap Petraeus for secretary of state, it will
likely galvanize Senate Democrats in opposition and place Senate Republicans —
many of whom sharply criticized Clinton for her handling of classified emails —
in a difficult spot.
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