Wasn’t so much giving away secrets for sex, as providing information for his biography to prove what a grand and decisive leader he was, ego gratification.
One doesn’t get to his position without being a adept at self-promoter as well as a skilled military leader.
Broadwell was there for the taking, and as Trump stated, star f***ers are there for the taking. Petraeus just “grabbed the pussy”.
Petraeus did not sell secrets for sex.
What they nailed him on was trying to cover up for his girlfriend. The Obama Administration was trying (successfully) to destroy him, because he polled so high as a potential Republican presidential candidate.
His girlfriend while he was deployed was Paula Broadwell, a commissioned US Army officer with a Top Secret Clearance - a West Point graduate, and by any account a loyal American with no connection to any foreign intelligence service. She herself was a Military Intelligence officer by branch, who had been polygraphed.
As the wartime commander in the theater, GEN Petraeus was authorized to grant her (or anyone else he deemed) access to any level of classified information.
Yes, he was banging her. They were both deployed for long periods of time, and people hook up - and that was the soft point that the left used to take him out. He tried to cover up for his girlfriend (and himself), who they were threatening with jail and ruin, by misleading the FBI. That is why he was legally punished (ruined). As per the left’s standard operating procedure, he was then demonized in the press for unjustified allegations, exaggerating his offenses.
It is a very different thing for someone to try to cover up for a family member or loved one out of loyalty, than it is for someone to disloyally sell out their countries secrets. To reiterate, no US secrets were compromised - he only discussed them with a single trustworthy American, and let her read from his personal notebook, to give her the true context as she was writing the history of his role in the war.