The Gen. David Petraeus – Paula Broadwell sex scandal has more twists and turns than a PCP trip.
The affair was uncovered after the FBI stumbled upon e-mails between the former CIA director and his biographer while investigating a complaint from Jill Kelley, a friend of the general’s, over receiving harassing e-mails from a jealous Broadwell.
But as the story unravels, it becomes more and more bizarre.
The FBI agent whom Kelley brought the information to was told he could have nothing to do with the case this past summer after “superiors’ concerns that he was personally involved in the case,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Things had become so personal, in fact, that he sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley — who is married with three children — before the investigation began. The unnamed agent, a friend of Kelley’s, is now under investigation by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, its internal affairs wing.
Kelley, a military event planner in Tampa, Fla., told her FBI agent friend in May about the harassing e-mails, who then passed the complaint along to the agency’s local cyber crimes unit.
FBI officials became concerned that Kelley’s friend had become “obsessed” with the case and prohibited the agent from getting involved in the investigation before it even began, according to the WSJ.
The banned and shirtless FBI agent then went to Republican Rep. David Reichert because he thought that the agency would wind up ignoring the case. The case was then passed along to top members of Congress, who relayed the info to FBI headquarters in Washington.
By then, the WSJ reports, the FBI had connected the dots and concluded that the harassing e-mails were sent by Broadwell from a variety of accounts — and the agency had unwittingly uncovered her affair with Petraeus.
Broadwell reportedly believed that Kelley was romantically linked to Petraeus. The e-mails, which were sent to account shared by Kelley and her husband, accused her of touching Petraeus under a table. Another asked if Kelley’s husband was aware of her actions.
Kelley said in a statement Sunday that she and her family have been longtime friends of the Petraeus’ and there is no evidence so far to suggest that there was a sexual relationship between Kelley and the general.