The lawyer for imprisoned leaker Stephen Kim has asked the Department of Justice to immediately release him from jail, accusing the government of a “profound double standard” in its treatment of leakers following a comparatively lenient plea deal for former Gen. David Petraeus. 
 
 Petraeus avoided prison time for disclosing a trove of classified information to his lover and lying to the FBI about it. Kim, meanwhile, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for violating the Espionage Act by talking to a Fox News reporter about a single classified report on North Korea. Kim pleaded guilty after a five-year legal battle that depleted his finances and sent him to the brink of suicide. Petraeus, in the wake of his plea arrangement, is expected to continue his lucrative career working for an investment bank and giving speeches. 
 
 Kim’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, noted in a scathing letter to the DOJ that Petraeus, in his plea deal, admitted leaking a range of highly sensitive material “at least as serious and damaging to national security as anything involved in Mr. Kim’s case” to Paula Broadwell, his lover and authorized biographer. Petraeus also acknowledged that when he was director of the CIA he lied to the FBI about leaking to Broadwell, as well as about keeping classified information at his home. 
 
 Yet while Kim, a former State Department official, was prosecuted under a draconian law against leaking — even though he merely discussed a single document that a government official later described in court filings as a “nothing burger” — Petraeus was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor offense of mishandling classified information, and he was not charged at all for the felony of lying to the FBI. Under the deal, he is expected to be placed on probation for two years and pay a fine of $40,000. 
 
 “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 in his two-page letter, which was dated March 6, just three days after the Petraeus plea deal was announced. “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.” 
 
 Lowell was referring to former CIA director Leon Panetta, who was not punished even though, according to a report by the Defense Department’s inspector general, he leaked the name of the SEAL commando who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Other senior officials who have avoided jail time for offenses related to classified information include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was “admonished but not charged” for keeping classified information at his house; John Deutch, the former CIA director who resigned and lost his security clearance but was not charged for storing classified documents on a home computer; former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor after he surreptitiously removed classified documents from the National Archives, and former Gen. James Cartwright, who reportedly has been investigated as the source for a New York Times story on Stuxnet but has not been charged. Scooter Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, was convicted in 2007 of obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent’s name, but his sentence was later commuted by President George W. Bush. 
 
 The imbalance of justice — high-level officials lightly punished while lower-level officials go to jail (such as John Kiriakou) or face years of career-ruining prosecution (such as Thomas Drake) — was emphasized by Stephen Kim’s sister, Yuri, in a statement to The Intercept. “Our family and our friends think it is just terribly unfair and not right that Stephen was given less consideration and different treatment for doing no more, and even less than General Petraeus,” she stated. “The general got the right result, but so should have Stephen. Stephen’s lawyers tried to get the Justice Department to address this disparity but they would not do so. We want others to know this.” 
 
 Although it seems unlikely that Lowell’s letter will lead to Kim’s immediate release, it makes an argument that will probably be at the heart of the sentencing of Jeffrey Sterling, a former mid-level CIA official who earlier this year was convicted of violating the Espionage Act by leaking classified information to a Times reporter. Sterling, due to be sentenced in April, faces a maximum penalty of decades behind bars. His lawyer is likely to cite the Petraeus deal in an effort to avert a prison sentence, because Sterling’s actions, like Kim’s, are similar to Petraeus’s and, if anything, perhaps less serious. If the government wishes to be consistent with the Petraeus deal, Sterling would, the argument goes, not serve any jail time. 
 
 Kim, meanwhile, has been incarcerated at a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland since July. 
 
 “It is too late for us to undo the plea and seek the misdemeanor that Mr. Kim should have been offered,” Lowell wrote. “However, some justice and fairness can occur, even at this late date, by our at least joining to end his incarceration now.” 
 
 Previous Intercept stories on the Stephen Kim case: 
 
 Stephen Kim Spoke To A Reporter. Now He’s In Jail. This Is His Story. 
 
 The Surrender (a short documentary by Stephen Maing) 
 
 Petraeus Plea Deal Reveals Two-Tier Justice System for Leaks 

 View gallery . In this June 23, 2011 file photo, CIA Director nominee Gen. David Petraeus testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, … 
 
 Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for former contractor Stephen Kim, acknowledged that he’s not expecting a positive response to a recent letter he wrote to Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and three other federal prosecutors who pursued his client. 
 
 But Lowell wrote the letter, obtained by Yahoo News, to highlight what he described as a “profound double standard” in the government’s prosecution of leak cases — a subject of mounting debate that could weigh on the Justice Department's decision in at least one ongoing high-profile leak probe. 
 
 The issue of the differing treatment of leakers — and especially the relatively light plea deal for Petraeus, who will receive no prison time — is also expected to come up in next month’s sentencing of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer convicted of leaking classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen. View gallery . Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling leaves the Alexandria Federal Courthouse, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in Alexandria, … 
 
 Edward MacMahon, one of Sterling’s lawyers, confirmed to Yahoo News that he too will be citing the Petraeus case when his client — who is potentially facing up to 10 years in prison — is sentenced next month. “I’ll be discussing all the sentencing in leak cases,” MacMahon said. 
 
 After a five-year legal battle, Kim — one of the State Department’s top experts on North Korea’s nuclear program — pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Espionage Act in April 2014 for leaking classified information to Fox News reporter James Rosen and was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison. 
 
 But Lowell argues that Kim’s prison term doesn’t square with the Justice Department’s decision earlier this month to allow Petraeus to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information — and to forgo recommending any jail time, asking for a $40,000 fine instead. 
 
 “General Petraeus is admitting to disclosing [national defense information] that was at least as serious and damaging to national security as anything involved in Mr. Kim’s case,” Lowell wrote in his letter to Machen on March 6. 
 
 “Specifically, General Petraeus disclosed notebooks, containing ‘classified information’ regarding the identities of covert officers, war strategy … and deliberative discussions from high level National Security Council meetings.” 
 
 In court filings on March 3, Petraeus acknowledged turning over so-called black books — binders of notebooks he kept while serving as the top U.S. general in Afghanistan — to Paula Broadwell, his mistress and biographer. There was no evidence, however, that Broadwell used the classified information in her book. 
 
 But what irked Lowell, and prompted him to write the letter, was Petraeus’ admission that he lied to two FBI agents, falsely and knowingly denying that he leaked any classified information when he was questioned about the matter in October 2012, while he was CIA director. View gallery . Stephen Kim, a former State Department expert on North Korea, leaves federal court in Washington, Wednesday, April … 
 
 Lowell recounted in his letter to Machen that when he sought to secure a misdemeanor plea and no jail time for Kim, “you rejected that out of hand, saying that a large reason for your position was that Mr. Kim lied to FBI agents when he was confronted with the issue of his dealings with the Fox News reporter.” 
 
 Lowell argued that this underscores a point he and others have been making about the Justice Department’s handling of leak cases for some time: “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,” while “high level officials” like Petraeus “leak classified information to forward their own agendas (or to impress their mistresses) with virtual impunity.” 
 
 The Obama administration has been widely criticized by news organizations and watchdog groups — and praised by some in national security circles — for aggressively pursuing leak investigations, filing more criminal charges for violations of the Espionage Act (seven) than all previous administrations combined. 
 
 But the issue of double standards is getting increasing traction and is generating particular scrutiny now as the Justice Department weighs whether to file charges against another former high-level official, Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is suspected of leaking classified information about a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, using a computer virus called Stuxnet, to New York Times reporter David Sanger. View gallery . Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright holds a news briefing and update on the Don't … 
 
 Cartwright’s lawyer, former White House counsel Gregory Craig, has denied the charges. Some national security officials have raised concerns that bringing a case against Cartwright now would force the U.S. government to publicly acknowledge the covert program, thereby affecting U.S. national security and possibly disrupting efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, according to a recent Washington Post account and a source familiar with the Cartwright investigation. 
 
 Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who handles leak cases, said the letter would likely carry no legal weight with the Justice Department, given that the Kim case is closed. But, he added, “he absolutely has a moral point,” and “there is no doubt that the Petraeus case smacks of elitism.” The $40,000 fine that Justice is recommending for Petraeus is meaningless, said Zaid: “He’ll make that in one speech.”
– When Stephen J. Kim, a former State Department contractor, leaked classified information about North Korea to Fox News in an effort to bring attention to the danger that country poses, he was given a 13-month sentence. Yet David Petraeus gave his journals, which contained top-secret notes, to the lover writing a book about him, and the now-retired general will not be given jail time. A lawyer for Kim points out that "profound double standard" in a letter to the Justice Department calling for Kim's immediate release, the New York Times reports. And, as the Times notes, there are other examples of the discrepancy in sentences handed out to high-level officials like Petraeus versus those handed out to lower-level officials or contractors. For instance: Former CIA officer John C. Kiriakou served almost two years for disclosing the name of a fellow officer involved in the CIA's interrogation program to a journalist. Petraeus, then-CIA director, released a statement on the incident noting that "oaths do matter"—a month before his own disclosures were revealed. Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling faces years in prison for allegedly leaking information to the Times about a secret mission, though he says he's innocent. (One of his lawyers tells Yahoo News the defense team will cite Petraeus' case during Sterling's sentencing next month.) But the investigation into alleged leaks by retired Gen. James E. Cartwright has stalled. The letter also notes that Leon Panetta wasn't punished even though he allegedly leaked the name of the SEAL who led the Osama bin Laden raid, the Intercept reports. "If you're high enough up, you play by different rules," says a former NSA officer whose own illegal disclosures cost him his retirement benefits and a lot of money. Petraeus, meanwhile, makes a good living running a private equity firm, speaking on national security issues, and even advising the White House. Kim's lawyer tells Yahoo News he's not expecting a "positive response" to his letter.