November 10, 2012
NYT
WASHINGTON — The
F.B.I. investigation that led to the sudden resignation of
David H. Petraeus as
C.I.A.
director on Friday began with a complaint several months ago about
“harassing” e-mails sent by Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus’s biographer,
to another woman who knows both of them, two government officials
briefed on the case said Saturday.
When F.B.I. agents following up on the complaint began to examine Ms.
Broadwell’s e-mails, they discovered exchanges between her and Mr.
Petraeus that revealed that they were having an affair, said several
officials who spoke of the investigation on the condition of anonymity.
They also discovered that Ms. Broadwell possessed certain classified
information, one official said, but apparently concluded that it was
probably not Mr. Petraeus who had given it to her and that there had
been no major breach of security. No leak charges are expected to be
filed as a result of the investigation.
The identity of the woman who complained about the harassing messages
from Ms. Broadwell has not been disclosed. She was not a family member
or in the government, the officials said, and the nature of her
relationship with Mr. Petraeus was not immediately known. But they said
the two women seemed be competing for Mr. Petraeus’s loyalty, if not his
affection.
One Congressional official who was briefed on the matter said senior
intelligence officials explained that the F.B.I. investigation “started
with two women” — evidently Ms. Broadwell and the woman who complained
about her e-mails. “It didn’t start with Petraeus, but in the course of
the investigation they stumbled across him,” said the Congressional
official. “We were stunned.”
Ms. Broadwell has made no statement since the affair became public on
Friday, and attempts to reach her for comment have been unsuccessful.
The circumstances surrounding the collapse of Mr. Petraeus’s career
remain murky. It is not clear when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
or Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., became aware that
the F.B.I.’s investigation into Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails had brought to
light compromising information about Mr. Petraeus. Tracy Schmaler, a
spokeswoman for Mr. Holder, declined to comment Saturday.
Neither the Congressional Intelligence Committees nor the White House
learned of the investigation or the link to Mr. Petraeus until last
week, officials said. Neither did Mr. Petraeus’s boss, James R. Clapper
Jr., the director of national intelligence.
A senior intelligence official said Saturday that Mr. Clapper had
learned of Mr. Petraeus’s situation only when the F.B.I. notified him,
about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, election night. That evening and the next day,
the official said, the two men discussed the situation, and Mr. Clapper
told Mr. Petraeus “that he thought the right thing to do would be to
resign,” the intelligence official said.
Mr. Clapper notified the president’s senior national security staff late
Wednesday that Mr. Petraeus was considering resigning because of an
extramarital affair, the official said.
The decisions on when to notify various administration officials,
including Mr. Clapper on Tuesday, were “a judgment call consistent with
policies and procedures,” according to one of the government officials
who had been briefed.
If the investigation had uncovered serious security breaches or other
grave problems, he said, the notifications would have been immediate. As
it was, however, the matter seemed to involve private relationships
with little implication for national security.
Some Congressional staff members said they believed that the bureau
should have informed at least the Republican and Democratic leaders of
the House and Senate Intelligence Committees about the unfolding
inquiry. A spokesman for Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan
Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said the lawmaker
had summoned Sean Joyce, the F.B.I.’s deputy director, and Michael J.
Morrell, the deputy C.I.A. director, for closed briefings on Wednesday
about the investigation.
Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, said Saturday an F.B.I. employee
whom his staff described as a whistle-blower told him about Mr.
Petraeus’s affair and a possible security breach in late October, which
was after the investigation had begun.
“I was contacted by an F.B.I. employee concerned that sensitive,
classified information may have been compromised and made certain
Director Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the
potential risk to our national security,” Mr. Cantor said in a
statement.
Mr. Cantor talked to the person after being told by Representative Dave
Reichert, Republican of Washington, that a whistle-blower wanted to
speak to someone in the Congressional leadership about a national
security concern. On Oct. 31, his chief of staff, Steve Stombres, called
the F.B.I. to tell them about the call.
“They took the information,” said Doug Heye, Mr. Cantor’s deputy chief
of staff, “and gave the standard answer: they were not able to confirm
or deny any investigation, but said that all necessary steps were being
taken to make sure no confidential information was at risk.”
White House officials said they were informed on Wednesday night that
Mr. Petraeus was considering resigning because of an extramarital
affair. On Thursday morning, just before a staff meeting at the White
House, President Obama was told.
That afternoon, Mr. Petraeus went to see him and informed him that he
strongly believed he had to resign. Mr. Obama did not accept his
resignation right away, but on Friday, he called Mr. Petraeus and
accepted it.
Mr. Petraeus, 60, said in a statement that he was resigning after 14
months as head of the Central Intelligence Agency because he had shown
“extremely poor judgment” in engaging in the affair. He has been married
for 38 years.
Ms. Broadwell, 40, is also married. She and her husband have two children and live in Charlotte, N.C.
On Saturday, the two government officials who had been briefed on the
case dismissed a range of media speculation that the F.B.I. inquiry
might have focused on leaks of classified information to the news media
or even foreign spying. “People think that because it’s the C.I.A.
director, it must involve bigger issues,” one official said. “Think of a
small circle of people who know each other.”
The F.B.I. investigators were not pursuing evidence of Mr. Petraeus’s
marital infidelity, which would not be a criminal matter, the official
said. But their examination of his e-mails, most or all of them sent
from a personal account and not from his C.I.A. account, raised the
possibility of security breaches that needed to be addressed directly
with him.
“Alarms went off on larger security issues,” the official said. As a
result, F.B.I. agents spoke with the C.I.A. director about two weeks
ago, and Mr. Petraeus learned in the discussion, if he was not already
aware, that they knew of his affair with Ms. Broadwell, the official
said.
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