Former CIA Director David Petraeus was sentenced Thursday to two years probation for leaking highly classified information to a biographer with whom he was having a sexual relationship – exposing what attorneys for whistleblowers prosecuted by the Obama administration say is a glaring double standard.

The U.S. “clearly has a two-tiered justice system when it comes to classified information,” says Jesselyn Radack, a Government Accountability Project lawyer who has represented several people prosecuted during the administration's crackdown on leaks by low-level officials. "If you’re a person in a position of power or you’re politically well connected, you can leak with impunity."

Petraeus acknowledged last month in plea deal documents that he gave mistress Paula Broadwell – author of his biography, “All In” – access to eight “black books” that contained classified information from his time leading military efforts in Afghanistan, and that he then lied about it to the FBI.

The books included “classified information regarding the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from high-level National Security Council meetings, and [Petraeus’] discussions with the President of the United States of America," the documents say. They also contained "national defense information, including Top Secret//SCI and code word information.”

The retired four-star general was allowed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information, with prosecutors recommending probation rather than the maximum one-year prison sentence the charge carries.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler gave Petraeus a $100,000 fine, more than doubling prosecutors' requested financial penalty, saying, according to WBTV journalist Kristen Hampton, it was needed to promote respect for the law and provide a deterrent for others.

The light penalty for Petraeus, who took prestigious and well-paid positions after leaving office in disgrace, contrasts sharply with the Obama administration’s approach to other people who allegedly shared classified information without permission.

Radack's clients – including former NSA employee Thomas Drake, former CIA officer John Kiriakou and Edward Snowden – have not been offered generous deals.

Kiriakou, a critic of Bush-era interrogation tactics he considers torture, was released from prison in February after 23 months and remains under house arrest for confirming the identities of agents with a journalist who did not publish them. Drake faced a possible 35 years in prison for allegedly mishandling classified information before the government’s case fell apart and he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor in 2011.

Others prosecuted by the Obama administration include Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentencing for sharing military and State Department documents – largely of low classification – with WikiLeaks. Stephen Kim, a former State Department contractor, is serving a 13-month sentencing for sharing a classified assessment on North Korea with Fox News. And former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling faces a possible 24-year sentence next month after being convicted of exposing to journalist James Risen a bungled plot to undermine Iran’s nuclear program.

“Sterling faces a bloodbath on May 11 and David Petraeus got a bubble bath,” Radack says. “It’s just outrageous.”

“I have clients who have faced decades to the rest of their life in prison for leaking far less information that was classified at a far lower level compared to what Petraeus leaked,” she says. “Petraeus’ conduct was far more outrageous and potentially harmful to the U.S. than anything Snowden, Drake, Kiriakou, Manning, Kim or Sterling allegedly or actually did.”

Abbe Lowell, a defense attorney for Kim, declined to comment directly on Petraeus’ sentencing, but pointed to a passionate letter he sent Justice Department officials last month about the Petraeus deal.

“The decision to permit General Petraeus to plead guilty to a misdemeanor demonstrates more clearly than ever the profound double standard that applies when prosecuting so-called ‘leakers’ and those accused of disclosing classified information for their own purposes,” Lowell wrote. “As we said at the time of Mr. Kim’s sentencing, lower-level employees like Mr. Kim are prosecuted under the Espionage Act because they are easy targets and lack the resources and political connections to fight back. High-level officials (such as General Petraeus and, earlier, Leon Panetta) leak classified information to forward their own agendas (or to impress their mistresses) with virtual impunity.”

Panetta, who preceded Petraeus as CIA director from 2009 to 2011, improperly disclosed classified information to the makers of “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film about the operation that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden. He was not prosecuted.

Current CIA Director John Brennan faced similar scrutiny for his role in leaking information about an allied nation’s spy being embedded in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The disclosure was made on TV by former government official Richard Clarke, who was given the information by Brennan as the administration struggled to explain why it claimed there was no credible terror plot on the first anniversary of bin Laden’s death. The Associated Press had reported an improved underwear bomb was intercepted then. Former FBI agent Donald Sachtleben pleaded guilty to leaking information about the bomb and agreed to serve 43 months in prison, but neither Brennan nor Clarke faced charges for disclosing information about the undercover agent.

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American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wizner, who also is representing Snowden, says the slap on the wrist for Petraeus is in keeping with how “officials in high places are treated by the legal system,” but expressed hope the leniency could set a precedent.