Pentagon won't punish Petraeus

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has decided not to impose any further punishment on David Petraeus, the former CIA director and retired Army general who was forced to resign in a sex-and-secrets scandal in 2012.

In a brief letter sent on Friday to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon reported that Carter had agreed with the Army's recommendation not to discipline Petraeus.

"Given the Army's review, Secretary Carter considers this matter closed," Stephen C. Hedger, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, wrote in the three-sentence letter, obtained by the Washington Post. The letter did not elaborate.

The Pentagon letter was addressed to Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.), the chairman and top Democrat, respectively, of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In a public letter of their own on Jan. 20, the senators had urged Carter to let the Petraeus matter lie and allow him to keep the four-star rank he had earned during his long career in the Army.

After a lengthy investigation by the FBI that disgraced the onetime military hero, Petraeus pleaded guilty in April in federal court in North Carolina to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials. He received two years of probation and a $100,000 fine.

Petraeus's civilian sentence, however, did not necessarily exempt him from further punishment at the hands of the military. Although he retired from the Army in 2011 to take the top job at the CIA, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice he still could have faced discipline for his actions.

Under military law, Carter could have imposed a range of disciplinary measures, from issuing a nonbinding letter of concern about Petraeus's actions to demoting him from his current rank as a retired four-star general.

Besides further tarnishing Petraeus' reputation, stripping him of a star could have cost him tens of thousands of dollars a year in pension payments.

Carter's decision effectively ends a long and embarrassing period of uncertainty for Petraeus, one of the Army's most venerated leaders before his reputation was shredded by the scandal.