Fall of Petraeus leaves host of questions
Politicians are lining up to grill the FBI and CIA over who knew what and when about the scandal that felled CIA chief David Petraeus
The dramatic downfall of CIA chief David Petraeus has given rise to political intrigue in Washington with a drip-feed of details concerning his illicit affair, accompanied by serious questions over the timing of his resignation.
It emerged over the weekend that his relationship with biographer Paula Broadwell was discovered by FBI agents when they investigated emails amounting to harassment allegedly sent by Broadwell to a second woman, who is a friend of the Patraeus family.
High-level officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department had known about Petraeus's affair since late summer, but did not notify anybody outside of the agencies until last week, government officials said.
Intelligence officials have suggested that Petraeus was first questioned over the nature of his relationship with Broadwell a fortnight ago. But it was only on the night of the presidential election that the national intelligence director, James Clapper, was notified of the affair. It is thought that Clapper then advised the CIA chief to resign.
The White House was informed one day later and another day passed before the newly re-elected President Barack Obama was told that his intelligence chief was to tender his resignation. Yesterday's reports that a leading House Republican, Eric Cantor, had been told by an FBI whistleblower of the brewing Petraeus scandal two weeks ago raise the prospect that there was some knowledge of the affair in Washington circles before Friday.
The questions is likely to be raised today in Washington when senior FBI and CIA officials are set to brief top politicians
Officials, however, said that the timing of notifications had nothing to do with the election, saying that there was no obvious political advantage for either Obama or Mitt Romney in the news that the CIA director had had an affair; Petraeus is highly regarded by both Republicans and Democrats. They also said that Cantor's call to the FBI on October 31 had not accelerated or influenced the investigation.