The e-mail trail that led the FBI to uncover the affair between former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus and biographer Paula Broadwell has also shed new light on how much access Tampa socialite Jill Kelley had to top-ranking military officials.
Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, reached out to Jill Kelley earlier this year after syndicated Florida controversial radio host Bubba the Love Sponge (real name Todd Alan Clem) said he would “deep fat fry” a Quran during a radio segment, NBC News first reported.
E-mails from Kelley to Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn indicate the event planner had a direct line to top military officers and that they personally asked for her help “with the potential crises we’ll be dealing with” over Bubba’s words.
Kelley wrote in a e-mail on March 7 to Buckhorn: “I have Petraeus & Allen both emailing me about getting this dealt with,” she wrote. “I just got off the phone with Gen. Allen & Adm Harward [deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa]. I’m going to need your assistance, vice versa with the potential crises we’ll be dealing with.”
Executive Producer and Bubba the Love Sponge co-host Brent Hatley, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during Operation Desert Storm, told The Daily Caller that it is “unreal” the military would become involved in a so-called “offensive” radio segment.
“This is unreal that a Marine general [Allen] is such a pussy that he has to call some faux, so-called socialite to put a stop to a radio bit by Bubba The Love Sponge, offensive to Muslims,” Hatley told TheDC by e-mail. “He should be concentrating on the task at hand, which is, the disaster called Afghanistan.”
“President Obama is weak. He should’ve fired General Allen the moment his excessive emails to Jill Kelley became public. What else should we expect from a horrible president that knows absolutely zero about the military and what combat troops have to endure?” Hatley continued.
Kelley triggered an FBI investigation over the summer after she complained to an FBI agent acquaintance that she had been receiving harassing e-mails. The e-mails eventually turned out to be from Broadwell, who appeared to believe Petraeus was involved in a romantic relationship with Kelley.
Another twist involved that initial FBI agent to be taken off the case after officials thought he was becoming “obsessed” with the case.
The e-mails also revealed that Kelley herself had been involved in “flirtatious” and perhaps inappropriate e-mail conversations with Allen who is being investigated by military officials for misconduct, which has held up his nomination to become the head of the U.S. European Command.