David Petraeus, a retired general and former CIA director, is on President-elect Donald Trump’s short list to head the State Department. | AP Photo Petraeus: '5 years ago, I made a serious mistake'

David Petraeus owned his “mistake” Sunday, leaving it in the hands of the Senate to determine whether his guilty plea for providing classified information to his lover is disqualifying should he be nominated to serve as secretary of state.

“Five years ago, I made a serious mistake. I acknowledged it, I apologized for it, I paid a very heavy price for it, and I’ve learned from it,” Petraeus said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And, again, they’ll have to factor that in and also, obviously, 38 ½ years of otherwise fairly, in some cases, unique service to our country in uniform and at the CIA and some four years or so in the business community during which I’ve continued to travel the world — nearly 40 countries — in that time as well.”


Petraeus, a retired general and former CIA director, is on President-elect Donald Trump’s short list to head the State Department. Should Trump tap him as secretary of state, he would likely have to answer questions about leaking classified information to biographer Paula Broadwell in confirmation hearings that would come after a campaign that saw Trump repeatedly hammer former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her own handling of classified information.

Trump maintained that Clinton did far worse than Petraeus, but it was Petraeus who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine. FBI Director James Comey recommended no charges against Clinton to the Justice Department, despite what he called her “extremely careless” handling of sensitive information.

Petraeus admitted to making a false statement to the FBI, although “at the time I didn’t think it was false,” he said. But he also stressed that the FBI found that nothing in the journals he shared “ended up in the biography or made it out to the public.”

“I made a mistake. I have, again, acknowledged it,” he said. “Folks will have to factor that in and determine whether that is indeed disqualifying or not.”

Petraeus also said he didn’t vote for Trump — or anyone else, for that matter.

“I don’t vote, so that’s an easy answer, and I also did not support him nor did I oppose him. Nor did I support or oppose any other candidate,” he said. “I’ve truly tried to be apolitical, nonpolitical.”