CIA scandal:
E-mail trail brings down David Petraeus.
WASHINGTON — The collapse of the impressive career of CIA Director David Petraeus was triggered when a woman with whom he was having an affair sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him, according to three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode.
The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said.
When Petraeus’ name surfaced, FBI investigators were concerned that the CIA director’s personal e-mail account had been hacked and that national security had been threatened. The officials said further investigation, including FBI interviews with Broadwell and Petraeus, led to the discovery that the two were engaged in an affair.
The identity of the woman who received the e-mails was not disclosed, and the nature of her relationship with Petraeus is unknown. The officials said the woman did not work at the CIA and was not Petraeus’ wife, Holly. The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.
All three senior officials who described the impetus for the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Petraeus, 60, a retired fourstar Army general who was once seen as a potential presidential candidate, said Friday that he was resigning as CIA chief because he had been involved in an extramarital affair. He has been married for 38 years and has two grown children.
Broadwell, 40, is married and has two young children. Attempts to reach her have been unsuccessful.
Other details emerged Saturday indicating that the Petraeus allegations became a secret election-night drama for the Obama administration. That evening, the Justice Department informed the director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., that their investigation had unearthed compromising information about the CIA director, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official.
Clapper then spoke with Petraeus and urged him to resign, notifying the White House the next day. That sequence has become a source of controversy, raising questions among some members of Congress about why key intelligence committees were not notified earlier and why the FBI waited before informing the administration.
The law enforcement officials said investigators initially thought they were dealing with a routine harassment case until some communications were traced to a private e-mail account belonging to Petraeus.
The investigators first interviewed him about two weeks ago, the officials said. They did not suggest that he should resign or that he would be charged with a crime, according to the officials.
One of the officials said Justice Department officials were unclear on what steps to take after they concluded that there would be no charges against the CIA director or Broadwell and that there had been no breach of national security.
The notification finally came Tuesday evening, while polls were still open across the country in an election that would return President Obama to office for four more years.