Obama mum on Petraeus process
WASHINGTON ( AP) — President Barack Obama said Wednesday he’s withholding judgment about the handling of a federal investigation that cost the CIA director his job, but he’s seen no evidence “at this point” that national security was damaged by the widening sex scandal.
“I have a lot of confidence generally in the FBI,” Obama said, offering only qualified words of support for the agency. But the president added that if the FBI had given the White House an earlier heads- up about the inquiry into possible national security violations, he might now be facing questions about why he’d interfered in a criminal investigation.
The inquiry that led to CIA Director David Petraeus’ resignation began last summer, but the White House didn’t learn about it until the day after the election. Two days later, on Friday, Petraeus resigned after acknowledging he’d had an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
As Obama spoke about the scandal from the White House, legislators on Capitol Hill were grilling FBI and CIA officials about the same issues: whether national security was jeopardized and why they didn’t know about the investigation sooner.
FBI Director Robert Mueller and deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce met first with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., and ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, then crossed the Capitol to meet with the House Intelligence Committee.
Acting CIA Director Mi- chael Morell went before the House panel next, after meeting Tuesday with top Senate intelligence officials to explain the CIA’s take on events that led to Petraeus’ resignation.
Lawmakers are especially concerned over reports that Broadwell had classified information on her laptop, though FBI investigators say they concluded there was no security breach.
Obama, for his part, said he had “no evidence at this point from what I’ve seen that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security.”
U. S. officials say Broadwell sent harassing, anonymous emails to a woman she apparently saw as a rival for Petraeus’ affections. That woman, Jill Kelley, in turn traded sometimes flirtatious messages with Afghan war chief Gen. John Allen, possible evidence of another inappropriate relationship.
Officials who have seen the communications between Allen and Kelley describe some of their emails as overly flirtatious and “suggestive,” and say their release would be embarrassing for the general.
Word surfaced Wednesday that Kelley’s pass to enter MacDill Air Force Base has been indefinitely suspended, a decision made at the base. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Warren said she can still enter the base but now must report to the visitor center and sign in like anyone else who doesn’t have a pass
Kelley’s complaints about threatening emails triggered the FBI investigation that led to the resignation of Petraeus and a probe into communications between her and Allen, the top U. S. commander in Afghanistan.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein was asked by reporters if there was a national security breach with the Petraeus affair and said she had “no evidence that there was at this time.”