Petraeus leaves CIA over affair with biographer
WASHINGTON — CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the leading U.S. spy agency on Friday, saying he had engaged in an extramarital affair and acknowledging he “showed extremely poor judgment.”
In a letter to the CIA workforce, Petraeus, 60, said he met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White Houseon Thursday and asked “to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position.”
“After being married for 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” he wrote. “Such behaviour is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.”
Obama, who was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday, said in a statement he had accepted Petraeus’ resignation, praising him for his work at the Central Intelligence Agency and for leading U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The woman with whom the former CIA director had the affair is Paula Broadwell, according to a person familiar with the matter. She is an author who wrote a biography of Petraeus titled All In.
Attempts to reach Broadwell were unsuccessful. There was no answer at the door of her house in the affluent Charlotte, North Carolina, neighbourhood of Dilworth.
There have been indications the affair was first uncovered a few months ago during an investigation by the FBI during an apparently unrelated investigation of news leaks.
Petraeus’ revelation of the affair appeared to end the public career of a widely admired warrior-scholar who played a key role in the Iraq war, led the U.S. Central Command and commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Petraeus’ name had circulated speculatively as a possible Republican presidential nominee before Obama tapped him as CIA chief. Before taking the CIA post, he retired as an army general after nearly four decades of military service.
Petraeus led the CIA for only 14 months. His sudden departure threat-ened to usher in a period of instability at the spy agency, which is grappling with a levelling off in its budget after a decade of steady increases.
The agency is also fending off questions about its performance before and after the attack that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.
U.S. officials insisted the CIA’s handling of the Benghazi incident had nothing to do with Petraeus’ decision to resign.
Petraeus recently travelled to Libya and the Middle East, and had been scheduled to testify about the Benghazi events next week behind closed doors to the House and Senate intelligence committees. Now, he will not give that testimony.
There is no indication Petraeus broke any agency rule in connection with his admitted affair, sources familiar with the matter said. The CIA has no broad rule banning officials from engaging in extramarital affairs.