On Monday, retired Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony count for lying to the FBI about speaking with reporters on cyber-espionage against Iran's nuclear program. Cartwright was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until 2013 and a key member of President Obama's national security team, and when he is sentenced in January, he faces punishments ranging from a $500 fine to six months in prison under a plea deal. Cartwright acknowledged giving false statements to the FBI about his conversations with New York Times reporter David Sanger and Newsweek correspondent Daniel Klaidman.
"It was wrong for me to mislead the FBI on Nov. 2, 2012, and I accept full responsibility for this," Cartwright said in a statement after the hearing. "I knew I was not the source of the story and I didn't want to be blamed for the leak. My only goal in talking to the reporters was to protect American interests and lives; I love my country and continue to this day to do everything I can to defend it." The Obama administration has brought criminal charges in more than twice as many cases involving leaking of government secrets to the news media than all of his predecessors combined, The New York Times notes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
Swearing in the UK: a colourful historyIn The Spotlight Thanet council's bad language ban is the latest chapter in a saga of obscenity
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
