Petraeus told biographer to stop harassing family friend, officials say

[alp227]

Source: washington post

Former CIA director David H. Petraeus told the woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to stop sending threatening e-mails to a family friend, Jill Kelley, after a federal investigation determined who was behind the harassment.

The move by Petraeus came in mid-summer after Kelley contacted a friend who worked as an FBI agent in Tampa, where she lived, beginning a process that would eventually force the former four-star former general to resign last week.

The new information, provided by two law enforcement officials, helps fill in a summer timeline when Petraeus’s e-mail account became the subject of a federal investigation into whether national security had been compromised during his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

Broadwell, a former Harvard University researcher who focused her dissertation on Petraeus’s military career, hired longtime Washington criminal defense attorney Robert F. Muse, the lawyer said Monday.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/petraeus-told-biographer-to-stop-harassing-family-friend-officials-say/2012/11/12/6ccb325c-2d00-11e2-a99d-5c4203af7b7a_story.html

[frazzled]

1. Hmmm, that doesn't comport with the latest AP story

in which "Petraeus shocked at girlfriend's emails to friend."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014301728

There's way too much shaking out of these stories to come to any conclusions yet.

[rocktivity]

2. I think it liked it better when there was a GOP conspiracy going on

but it's sounding more like Broadwell considered Kelley a rival (or potential rival) and overreacted. Now the coverup is becoming worse than the crime.


rocktivity

[BeHereNow]

4. I agree with your scenario...Broadwell ignited the investigation with her delusional thinking.

I think she acted on the assumption that Kelley was after "her man."
Or perhaps was jealous of any one who was apparently close to him.

Kelly, on the other hand, had nothing to hide therefore, invited the
FBI to the party when she received the threats, leading to the investigation
of the email accounts.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb people- Betrayus and his Broad-not-so-well.

May they both disappear into the dust bins of history.

I feel terrible for their families...

BHN

[Lucinda]

18. Why go to the FBI though.....couldn't she have cleared it up with Petreaus?

[HooptieWagon]

21. She didn't know the source of the emails.

And apparently didn't know Broadwell.

[BeHereNow]

24. So far, the reports say she never actually mentioned his name in the emails.

So she couldn't have cleared it up with him-
And who knows? Maybe the content, which I would LOVE to see, of
the emails was so threatening that Kelley thought the FBI should investigate?

I mean think about it, you start getting emails containing threats from
an anonymous person, who never actually names the source of their
discontent...what would you do?

BHN

[bluemarkers]

3. if only there were other public officials brought down by this sort of thing....

ummm dumb butt

(or heck, even a movie...)

[riverwalker]

5. from the comments

Cantor's and Reichert's involvement smells fishy...
seems the investigation was over and the FBI decided there were no charges to file, then an FBI agents calls up to tell them he's concerned classified information might have been breached --but that's what the FBI investigation was about and nothing was found.
but a rogue FBI agent decides to still pass the news of the affair a couple of weeks before the election.... there was no need to contact them. what could they find that the FBI couldn't find? nothing.
what bad publicity could they put out? a lot.

[SpartanDem]

8. What bad publicity?

What could Cantor goes on TV and say about the CIA director cheating on his wife that could damage the President?

[beac]

14. Nothing. BUT he could use his knowledge of the affair to

blackmail Petraeus into testifying on Benghazi in such a way as to paint Obama in the worst possible light.

[beam me up scottie]

6. How can such intelligent people be so fucking stupid?

[oswaldactedalone]

10. Seems like a 50-50 possibility n/t

[DURHAM D]

15. This post is completely inappropriate.

Classist, sizist, sexist and racist all in one.

[cosmicone]

11. Maybe Betrayus was banging both women. n/t

[Javaman]

16. That was my thought as well. nt

[lz1122]

12. "For Pete's sake..."

I'm CIA Director, I can't have my mistress sending harassing emails to another female close to me.

[nickyt]

13. so - Jill Kelley and her husband were good "family friends", right?

So, wouldn't Mrs. Kelley have mentioned all this weirdness to Mrs. Petraeus at some point, being great friends and all?

So awfully sorry for Mrs. Petraeus and all family members/loved ones having to deal with this freakin', painful mess -

[csziggy]

17. Broadwell's career is inconsistent with the stories about her

She is/was much more than a journalist or academic researcher. I haven't seen any of the news coverage mention her military career.

Broadwell graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1995. She majored in political geography.[10] She earned a master's degree in international security from the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies in 2006.[11][12] She earned a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2008.[13] She is a "Research Associate" in the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership Fellows.[14] In 2008, she entered the Ph.D. program at Department of War Studies at King's College London.[15]

<SNIP>
She served in the United States Army and the United States Army Reserve. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Reserves in August 2012.[16]

She was Deputy Director of the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.[4] She also worked with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Broadwell

Her career path does not fit with someone who would be casual with national security items or who would accidentally endanger the career of a top official in the CIA.

There must be much more going on that we are hearing - or probably ever will. A woman who graduated from West Point, became a Lieutenant Colonel and held the posts she had does not do the things she has been accused of without something major going on in her mind or without being set up by someone.

[progressivebydesign]

19. I'm starting to think that her ties to him were not lust-based, but espionage-based.

When you screw with the head of the CIA, literally, there is usually way more to it. I think we're just scraping the surface of the entire operation. Hell, for all we know the Benghazi thing was carried out for political purposes... on the right. Not as if those people don't have tentacles in the middle east. Considering how quickly and well-crafted the RW media and officials, tried to turn it into something to destroy the President, I have to wonder if ALL of this is tied together (including her.)

[AngryAmish]

20. I've met a few West Point grads and they too can be goofy.

[marlakay]

22. If petraeus and ex lover were sharing a email account

Since he had full access to it, why didn't he delete the account? I think he ended the affair only because he was caught, not because he wanted to.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Callista Gingrich on Petraeus: Affairs are ‘painful’ for the family

Callista Gingrich on Petraeus: Affairs are ‘painful’ for the family
By David Edwards
Monday, November 12, 2012 12:27 EST

The woman who married former House Speaker Newt Gingrich after cheating with him while he was married to his second wife says that former CIA Director David Petraeus’ extramarital affair is “sad” and “painful” for his family.

“I think it’s personally very sad for he and his family,” Callista Gingrich told ABC’s Barbara Walters on Monday. “I think he did the right thing by resigning. But this is painful and they’ll have to work together through this as a family. And that will take some time.”

The former House Speaker pointed out that Petraeus would have been in an “impossible situation” if he had tried to stay on as director of the CIA.

“This man served 37 years,” he pointed out. “We need to remember, he was the key to winning in Iraq. If he had not turned around the surge, we would have literally lost the war. He was the key to giving a fighting chance in Afghanistan. He is a brilliant, very hard-working person. And I hope he and his family can work through this.”

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/12/callista-gingrich-on-petraeus-affairs-are-painful-for-the-family/