Thread: House majority leader knew of Petraeus matter in October

Spokesman: House majority leader knew of Petraeus matter in October

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 12:47 PM EST, Sun November 11, 2012

CIA Director resigns over affair

(CNN) -- House majority leader Eric Cantor talked to an FBI official in late October about former CIA Director David Petraeus' involvement in an affair, a spokesman for the congressman told CNN Sunday.

Doug Heye said Cantor had a conversation with the whistleblower about the affair and the national security concerns involved in the matter.

The New York Times reported Saturday that on October 31, Cantor's chief of staff phoned the FBI to inform the agency about the call between the congressman and the FBI official. The Times reported Cantor learned of the whistleblower through Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Washington.

A spokeswoman for Reichert told CNN Sunday that the Times article was accurate but that the congressman had no further comment on his involvement in the case.

Petraeus' affair came to light when an FBI investigation looked into a complaint that his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was sending harassing e-mails to another woman close to the retired four-star general, a U.S. official told CNN Saturday.












During the investigation, other communications surfaced between Petraeus and Broadwell, a married mother of two, according to the official.
A U.S. official said Sunday that Petraeus used a personal account to e-mail Broadwell and not his CIA account.

CNN has not been able to reach Broadwell for comment.

The official did not identify the woman who made the initial complaint and did not know the nature of her relationship with Petraeus.

Official: Woman complained of harassing e-mails from Petraeus' biographer

The FBI interviewed Petraeus, said the official, who stressed that the CIA director was never the target of the investigation and his communications were never compromised. The official did not know whether Broadwell was interviewed.

The official could not say if the investigation is still ongoing. The Times reported the investigation had already begun by the time Cantor talked with the whistleblower.

On Saturday, questions arose about why congressional leaders were not informed of the investigation immediately.

According to a congressional aide familiar with the matter, the House and Senate intelligence committees weren't informed that there was an FBI investigation into the situation until Friday.

"The committees are required to be kept informed of significant intelligence activities," the aide said Saturday. "If there was an official investigation that was looking, at least in part, at information that was compromising the CIA director, then I think there's a solid argument to say that the committee leadership should have been notified to at least some level of detail."

Petraeus' resignation comes days before he was slated to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The attack, in which four Americans were killed, became a point of contention during the presidential campaign.

Some have even suggested that the timing of Petraeus' stepping down is suspect, given the expected grilling in Congress. Acting CIA Director Michael Morell will testify instead.

"It just doesn't add up," Rep. Peter King, R-New York, told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on Sunday. "You have this type of investigation. The FBI investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the CIA director, and taking four months to find out that the CIA director was involved. I have real questions about this. I think a timeline has to be looked at and analyzed to see what happened."

A senior U.S. official said Petraeus' departure wasn't connected to the Benghazi hearing.

"Director Petraeus' frank and forthright letter of resignation stands on its own," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. "Any suggestion that his departure has anything to do with criticism about Benghazi is completely baseless."

Broadwell spent a year with Petraeus in Afghanistan interviewing him for the book she co-wrote, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."

His resignation Friday appeared to be an abrupt end to a spectacularly successful career in public service.

"After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," Petraeus said in a letter to colleagues, explaining his decision to step down.

Opinion: How Petraeus changed the U.S. military

Before his nomination as CIA director, Petraeus was considered the nation's most well-known and popular military leader since Colin Powell.

He helping turn the tide against insurgents while commanding forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency techniques by overseeing the development of the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual.

Earning praise from both sides of the political aisle, the retired four-star general took the helm of the CIA in September 2011.
Petraeus, 60, and his wife, Holly, live in Virginia. They have two grown children.

Petraeus letter: I showed extremely poor judgment

Spokesman: House majority leader knew of Petraeus matter in October - CNN.com

Congress wants answers on Petraeus affair

By ANNE FLAHERTY, KIMBERLY DOZIER and ADAM GOLDMAN

Associated Press


By ANNE FLAHERTY, KIMBERLY DOZIER and ADAM GOLDMAN The Associated Press
Updated: 2012-11-12T03:00:04Z

T. Ortega Gaines
In this Jan. 15, 2012 photo, Paula Broadwell, author of the David Petraeus biography "All In," poses for photos in Charlotte, N.C. Petraeus, the retired four-star general renowned for taking charge of the military campaigns in Iraq and then Afghanistan, abruptly resigned Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 as director of the CIA, admitting to an extramarital affair. Petraeus carried on the affair with Broadwell, according to several U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation.

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress said Sunday they want to know more details about the FBI investigation that revealed an extramarital affair between ex-CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, questioning when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner.
"We received no advanced notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The FBI was investigating harassing emails sent by Petraeus biographer and girlfriend Paula Broadwell to a second woman. That probe of Broadwell's emails revealed the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus. The FBI contacted Petraeus and other intelligence officials, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asked Petraeus to resign.
A senior U.S. military official identified the second woman as Jill Kelley, 37, who lives in Tampa, Fla., and serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.
Staffers for Petraeus said Kelley and her husband were regular guests at events he held at Central Command headquarters.
In a statement Sunday evening, Kelley and her husband, Scott, said: "We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children."
A U.S. official said the coalition countries represented at Central Command gave Kelley an appreciation certificate on which she was referred to as an "honorary ambassador" to the coalition, but she has no official status and is not employed by the U.S. government.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case publicly, said Kelley is known to drop the "honorary" part and refer to herself as an ambassador.
The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Kelley had received harassing emails from Broadwell, which led the FBI to examine her email account and eventually discover her relationship with Petraeus.
A former associate of Petraeus confirmed the target of the emails was Kelley, but said there was no affair between the two, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the retired general's private life. The associate, who has been in touch with Petraeus since his resignation, says Kelley and her husband were longtime friends of Petraeus and wife, Holly.
Attempts to reach Kelley were not immediately successful. Broadwell did not return phone calls or emails.
Petraeus resigned while lawmakers still had questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. Lawmakers said it's possible that Petraeus will still be asked to appear on Capitol Hill to testify about what he knew about the U.S. response to that incident.
Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the circumstances of the FBI probe smacked of a cover-up by the White House.
"It seems this (the investigation) has been going on for several months and, yet, now it appears that they're saying that the FBI didn't realize until Election Day that General Petraeus was involved. It just doesn't add up," said King, R-N.Y.
Petraeus, 60, quit Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship. He has been married 38 years to Holly Petraeus, with whom he has two adult children, including a son who led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant.
Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer, is married with two young sons.
Petraeus' affair with Broadwell will be the subject of meetings Wednesday involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA deputy director Michael Morell.
Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before the committees on Thursday to testify on the attack in Benghazi. Republicans and some Democrats have questioned the U.S. response and protection of diplomats stationed overseas.
Morell was expected to testify in place of Petraeus, and lawmakers said he should have the answers to their questions. But Feinstein and others didn't rule out the possibility that Congress will compel Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date, even though he's relinquished his job.
"I don't see how in the world you can find out what happened in Benghazi before, during and after the attack if General Petraeus doesn't testify," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Graham, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to create a joint congressional committee to investigate the U.S. response to that attack.
Feinstein said she first learned of Petraeus' affair from the media late last week, and confirmed it in a phone call Friday with Petraeus. She eventually was briefed by the FBI and said so far there was no indication that national security was breached.
Still, Feinstein called the news "a heartbreak" for her personally and U.S. intelligence operations, and said she didn't understand why the FBI didn't give her a heads up as soon as Petraeus' name emerged in the investigation.
"We are very much able to keep things in a classified setting," she said. "At least if you know, you can begin to think and then to plan. And, of course, we have not had that opportunity."
Clapper was told by the Justice Department of the Petraeus investigation at about 5 p.m. on Election Day, and then called Petraeus and urged him to resign, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
FBI officials say the committees weren't informed until Friday, one official said, because the matter started as a criminal investigation into harassing emails sent by Broadwell to another woman.
Concerned that the emails he exchanged with Broadwell raised the possibility of a security breach, the FBI brought the matter up with Petraeus directly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
Petraeus decided to quit, though he was breaking no laws by having an affair, officials said.
Feinstein said she has not been told the precise relationship between Petraeus and the woman who reported the harassing emails to the FBI.
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, called Petraeus "a great leader" who did right by stepping down and still deserves the nation's gratitude. He also didn't rule out calling Petraeus to testify on Benghazi at some point.
"He's trying to put his life back together right now and that's what he needs to focus on," Chambliss said. King appeared on CNN's "State of the Union." Feinstein was on "Fox News Sunday," Graham spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation," and Chambliss was interviewed on ABC's "This Week."


Congress wants answers on Petraeus affair - KansasCity.com