Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe expressed doubt Tuesday evening that President Barack Obama did not know about the investigation into now former CIA Director David Petraeus.
“With the close relationship that the president has with Attorney General Holder and the regular FBI briefings he receives, does anyone really believe that Obama was unaware of this investigation until recently?” Inhofe, a senior member of Senate Armed Services Committee and a member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked in a statement.
On Tuesday, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the president learned of the “situation regarding General Petraeus on Thursday” and was “surprised.”
“And it is simply a fact that the White House was not aware of the situation regarding General Petraeus until Wednesday, and the situation regarding General Allen until Friday,” Carney told reporters.
Fox News reported Monday that Attorney General Eric Holder was informed of FBI probe in late summer.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton suggested to Fox News that the larger question is when the White House actually learned of Petraeus’ involvement in the investigation.
“The idea that the White House didn’t learn of this potential problem until Election Day, I just find incomprehensible. Did the attorney general sit on this information for two months?” Bolton asked, adding, according to Fox News, it raises the question “of whether the information was suppressed.”
Inhofe added that while he is disappointed in Petreaus’ personal choices, it does not take away from his record of accomplishment. He added that he is once again troubled by the administration’s lack of transparency.
“What is troubling about the investigation that resulted in this information coming to light is that the Obama administration once again exercised a major lack of transparency,” he said. “Instead of following the laws that requires the reporting of this type of information to appropriate congressional leadership, it was instead leaked first to the press.”
“This is an alarming trend with the Obama Administration, as they also failed to notify Congress of critical information regarding the Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans and failed to notify Congress of the U.S. drone that Iranian forces fired at recently,” Inhofe added.