WASHINGTON — The FBI’s handling of the investigation that led CIA Director David Petraeus to resign came under new scrutiny Wednesday as FBI Director Robert Mueller faced questions on Capitol Hill and President Barack Obama alluded to lingering questions about the course of the inquiry.
In his first public comments on the issue, Obama said he has seen no evidence that the scandal exposed classified information that might harm national security. But he stopped short of approving the FBI’s handling of the inquiries into the personal e-mail communications of Petraeus and U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John Allen.
The White House and Congress were kept in the dark about the investigations until election night last week. When asked at a news conference whether he should have known sooner that his CIA chief’s personal transgressions had surfaced, Obama said he was “withholding judgment with respect to how the entire process surrounding Gen. Petraeus came up. You know, we don’t have all the information yet.”
Obama’s remarks signaled that the administration is grappling with fundamental questions surrounding an investigation that has implicated the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, blindsided the president and still not determined whether classified material was mishandled.
Petraeus, a retired fourstar Army general, resigned as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Both are married.
Obama’s comments coincided with new disclosures that Broadwell had classified material and that the FBI’s initial concern centered on how an anonymous sender of menacing e-mails knew so much about the official schedules of the CIA director and the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan. The anonymous e-mails eventually were traced to Broadwell.
The messages were sent to Allen and Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite who cultivated close ties to Petraeus, Allen and other high-ranking military officers when they served at the headquarters for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. Allen is now under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general over the contents of hundreds of e-mail exchanges Allen had with Kelley.
Allen received a message in May from a sender using the alias “KelleyPatrol,” according to a person close to Kelley. The message made clear that the sender knew Allen would likely see Kelley at a coming event at the residence of an ambassador in Washington and that he should stay away from her, according to the person.
Subsequent messages, also anonymous, were sent to Kelley and her husband, Scott. One of them asked whether Scott Kelley knew that his wife would be meeting Petraeus in Washington at an event scheduled for the next week, the person said.
“Clearly the person knew the comings and goings of Gen. Allen and CIA Director Petraeus,” the person said. “There was concern that someone was stalking them electronically or physically and knew the comings and goings of fairly important people.”
In mid-June, Kelley called an FBI agent she had met and told him about the e-mails. He took copies to the bureau’s Tampa office because the material showed that the sender had detailed knowledge of the travel schedules of Petraeus and Allen and because Kelley expressed concern for her safety.
The agent was identified Wednesday as Frederick Humphries, 47, who knew Kelley from a visit to her house on an unrelated case years earlier, according to law enforcement officials. Humphries was not assigned to the harassment case, but he later became frustrated over what he thought was a lagging investigation into a possible national security breach.
In late October, Humphries raised his concerns with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Cantor’s chief of staff telephoned the FBI director’s chief of staff. After Cantor’s call, the Justice Department disclosed the existence of the investigation into Petraeus to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, on Nov. 6. Clapper told the White House the next day, and Petraeus resigned Friday.
The FBI’s last interview with Petraeus occurred Oct. 31, and Justice Department officials have argued that they could not disclose the existence of the investigation until it was concluded.
While the law enforcement officials said the FBI did not initially believe the case raised national security concerns, officials and others told The Washington Post that Broadwell had access to the schedules of high-level officials and other information that was stamped “secret.”
A former colleague of Broadwell’s described receiving a computer disc from her several months ago that contained material marked “secret” and included both personal schedules and PowerPoint presentations.
Broadwell’s possession and handling of such information is at the center of the FBI investigation. U.S. law enforcement officials said they found a “significant amount” of classified files on Broadwell’s personal computer. They also removed boxes of evidence from her home in North Carolina in a search Monday night.
Broadwell and Petraeus both told investigators that he did not provide classified materials to her during her research on his biography. Although Broadwell previously held a security clearance, an Army spokesman indicated Wednesday that her clearance has been suspended after the recent disclosures.
In his news conference, Obama said, “I have 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.”
Allen, formerly the chief of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, has said through associates that he did not have a physical relationship with Kelley or commit any wrongdoing in his e-mail communications with her.
But Allen is now the focus of an investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general, based on thousands of pages of transcripts of e-mail, many between Allen and Kelley, that were turned over to the Pentagon by the FBI. His military lawyer said Wednesday that Allen intends to cooperate fully with the inquiry.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that officials at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa have revoked Kelley’s badge, which granted her the same access as relatives of servicemen and retirees.
Kelley had created an unofficial role as a prominent social figure at MacDill, throwing lavish parties for high-ranking officers and forging close ties to the Petraeus family.
Mueller and FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce both appeared in closed session Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, facing questions for the first time from lawmakers on key points in the Petraeus case.
Among them are the FBI’s decision to expand what began as a low-level inquiry into alleged e-mail harassment involving private citizens, leading to sustained scrutiny of the private communications of top national security officials. Even after Petraeus and Allen had become ensnared in the inquiry, the FBI appears to have waited months before notifying the White House or Congress.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., the chairman of the committee, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican, issued a statement after the session saying that Mueller and Joyce “answered our questions. Because this is an ongoing FBI investigation, we will have no further comment.”
Obama said that his “expectation” is that the FBI followed protocols on when to disclose the findings of the probe and that informing the White House earlier might have invited criticism that the administration had interfered in a criminal investigation.
Information for this article was contributed by Kimberly Kindy, Carol Leonnig and Julie Tate of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 11/15/2012