Petraeus-Broadwell-Kelley story doesn’t stop. Here’s the
. Not only was Petraeus having an affair with his biographer, the hyper-aggressive and self-seeking Paula Broadwell, and not only was Broadwell writing intimidating e-mails to Petraeus’s friend, the hot number and “Social Liaison” Jill Kelley, and not only was Kelly exchanging lots of personal e-mails with Petraeus’s successor as commander in Afghantistan, John Allen, but Petraeus wrote a letter on behalf of Kelley’s identical twin sister Natalie Khawam supporting her in a child custody fight, and he did this despite the fact that the judge in the case had already severely reprimanded Natalie and called her mentally unstable for having repeatedly lied and made up false charges of abuse and violence against her husband.
Which reminds us of that photo we’ve seen so often of the Petraeuses at some ridiculous social gathering with Jill Kelley and her sister in (I think) 2004. The Post has a cropped version of that photo:
This is the sort of trash that Petraeus, who was already a top general in Iraq at the time, had as his friends, for whom he would do any favor. And look how stupid he looks in the picture.
So, everybody in the story is sex-crazed—our top military officers, their friends and hangers-on, and now the FBI agent who initiated the investigation that led to Petraeus’s resignation over his adultery. While the agent was
, he was also coming on to her in this crude way. Perhaps he thought it would be cool to emulate
, the then-Republican congressman from upstate New York who in 2011 sent the following photo to a woman not his wife whom he had “met” on Craig’s list and was trying to get a date with:
her complaint about the e-mails.
Petraeus helps whistleblower’s ‘unstable’ twin in nasty custody fight
November 13, 2012
Gen. David Petraeus sure loved helping his lady friends.
While he was director of the CIA, Petraeus wrote a letter supporting the child-custody fight of the “psychologically unstable” twin sister of his close friend Jill Kelley—whose bombshell claims of being threatened by his lover led to the top spy’s resignation last week, sources told The Post.
The four-star general’s letter to the court—written in the past two months—supported a motion to overturn a ruling made nearly a year earlier by a judge who resoundingly denied custody to Kelley’s sister, Natalie Khawam, because of serious reservations about her honesty and mental stability, court records show.
The letter was filed in DC Superior Court, where the father of Khawam’s 4-year-old son filed for divorce three years ago, two sources said. The status of the divorce was not immediately known.
Petraeus’ letter was filed as the FBI was investigating a complaint by Kelley, a 37-year-old, married Tampa, Fla., mom, that she was the target of anonymous e-mails warning her to “back off” and “stay away from my guy.”
The FBI determined the e-mails were written by Petraeus’ biographer—married mom of two Paula Broadwell, 40, who had allegedly engaged in a months-long affair with the also-married Petraeus before he supposedly broke it off four months ago.
Kelley then told Petraeus about the e-mails, The Washington Post said. He confronted Broadwell and told her to stop harassing Kelley, the report said.
Petraeus—who previously headed US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—resigned as head of the CIA Friday, after less than 15 months on the job.
Kelley, who has three children with surgeon Scott Kelley, is a “social liaison” to the military’s Joint Special Operations Command in Florida. [LA replies: Wait! Scott Kelley, like Scott Broadwell, is also a doctor? From his photos he looks like a big lug, not a doctor.]
She and her husband have been friends with Petraeus and his wife, Holly, for more than five years.
Petraeus reportedly has told friends he never had a romantic relationship with Jill Kelley—although Broadwell clearly believed otherwise.
In other developments yesterday:
* FBI agents arrived at Broadwell’s Charlotte, NC, home last night and were seen carrying out computers and other items.
* Petraeus denied being the source of sensitive military information found on Broadwell’s computer, adding she must have gotten it from other commanders, The Associated Press said.
* The agent whom Kelley first told about the e-mails, and began the investigation, was taken off the case after his superiors learned he had sent her a photo of himself shirtless, The Wall Street Journal said.
* Broadwell and her husband, Scott, were enjoying a romantic weekend at a countryside Virginia bed & breakfast Friday when news broke of her affair with Petraeus, The Washingtonian magazine reported.
* Petraeus initially did not want to resign after being confronted by the FBI about the affair, but chose to once he realized it couldn’t stay secret any longer, The Washington Post said
* A former Petraeus spokesman described Holly, the general’s wife of 37 years, as “furious.”
“Well, as you can imagine, she’s not exactly pleased right now,” retired Army Col. Steve Boylan told ABC News. “In a conversation with David Petraeus this weekend, he said that ‘furious would be an understatement.’ “
* The high-tech trickery Petraeus and Broadwell used to hide their affair was revealed. They wrote each other e-mails and, rather then sending them, left them in a draft folder for the other to read, the AP said. This prevented an easily followed e-mail trail. [LA replies: This must mean the draft folder in their respective online mailboxes. They must have given each other access to their online mailboxes so they wouldn’thave to e-mail each other.]
Petraeus wrote his letter amid a bitter divorce and custody battle between Khawam and Grayson Wolfe, a partner in a DC-based private venture firm.
A judge in November 2011 gave Wolfe sole custody of the couple’s son after finding that Khawam, a lawyer, repeatedly lied under oath and filed bogus domestic-violence and child-abuse claims against her husband after their one-year marriage began crumbling in 2009.
That judge also found that Khawam routinely defied court orders to let the child see his dad and sent harassing e-mails to Wolfe’s friends and business partners that “excoriated Mr. Wolfe for being a horrible father and husband.”
The judge blasted Khawam for giving false evidence, and noted that a court-ordered shrink had found her domestic-violence allegations to be “part of an ever-expanding set of sensational accusations … that are so numerous, so extraordinary and [so] distorted that they defy any common-sense view of reality.”
The judge also noted that she “is a psychologically unstable person.”
Jill Kelley’s brother, David Khawam, responding to Broadwell’s apparent accusation that his sister was romantically involved with Petraeus, told The Post, “I think it’s a blatant lie, knowing my sister, that she would ever have an affair with anybody … What do they say? ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’? I would pray for [Broadwell].”
Additional reporting by Ian Batchelor, Reuven Fenton, Tara Palmeri, Amber Sutherland
