Surgin’ general

Petraeus a fave for State, despite leaks

Donald Trump met Monday with ex-CIA Director David Petraeus, who is a leading candidate for secretary of state, despite leaking secrets to a paramour during an extramarital affair.

But Trump sounded forgiving after spending an hour with the retired four-star Army general at Trump Tower.

“Just met with General Petraeus — was very impressed!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

And Petraeus had warm words in return as he left the meeting.

“I was with him for about an hour. He basically walked us around the world,” said Petraeus, who earned acclaim for leading troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Showed a great grasp of a variety of the challenges that are out there and some of the opportunities as well. Very good conversation and we’ll see where it goes from here.”

While Petraeus remained the preferred choice for secretary of state among some prominent Re- publicans — including Arizona Sen. John McCain — 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Sen. Bob Corker (RTenn.) are still in the running and will meet with Trump on Tuesday.

Rudy Giuliani and hawkish ex-UN Ambassador John Bolton also were being considered.

Petraeus quit the top CIA post in November 2012 after his extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, went public.

He remained under FBI investigation and kept a low profile until March 2015, when he got a sweetheart plea deal with the feds in which he admitted to leaking classified material to Broadwell and lying to the FBI about it.

The following month, a federal judge sentenced him to two years’ probation plus a fine of $100,000.

Trump was “inclined” to pick Petraeus, a source told Bloomberg News, despite the security breach — though he railed against Hillary Clinton for exposing classified material through her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.