President Obama on Tuesday pardoned a retired Marine general who admitted to lying to federal investigators about having disclosed classified information about Iranian nuclear facilities to two reporters.
Retired Gen. James Cartwright, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was one of more than 60 pardons Obama handed down just days before leaving office.
Cartwright pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal investigators during their probe into whether he had disclosed classified information about the Stuxnet virus, which caused Iranian nuclear centrifuges to spin out of control.
“It was wrong for me to mislead the FBI on November 2, 2012, and I accept full responsibility for this,” Cartwright said in a statement after his guilty plea. “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 former Marine Corps general lost his security clearance in 2013 as a result of the investigation.
