Just like many other four-star generals and national intelligence chiefs, Bubba the Love Sponge had dealings with Tampa socialite and some-time honorary consul for South Korea, Jill Kelley.
Adding a tawdry new level to the Petraeus scandal, it has emerged that 37-year-old Jill Kelley and Bubba the Love Sponge, real name Todd Alan Clem, crossed paths when she involved herself in a spat over the radio host’s claims that he was going to deep fat fry a Koran earlier this year.
Bubba the Love Sponge has recently been in the news for settling a lawsuit with Hulk Hogan after he allegedly filmed the legendary wrestler and his then wife Heather Clem having sex and released it online.
When the Florida shock jock threatened to deep fat fry a Koran, General John Allen , the commander of the U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and CIA Director David Petraeus both spoke to social climbing Jill Kelley asking to help them with a potential threat to the safety of serving American troops.
Emails released yesterday sent between Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Jill Kelley reveal that she was indeed acting at the behest of high-level U.S. government officials and implored the mayor to act.
“I have Petraeus & Allen both emailing me about getting this dealt with,” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn on March 7th.
The previous day, Jill Kelley told Bobb Buckhorn of similar requests she had received from General John Allen and Vice Admiral Robert Harward, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa.
“I just got off the phone with Gen. Allen & Adm Harward,” Jill Kelley wrote.
“I’m going to need your assistance, vice versa with the potential crises we’ll be dealing with.”
When Bob Buckhorn responded to say it was being dealt with, Jill Kelley said: “They asked me to get involved, like I did when it happened with the Pastor last year.”
The emails offer proof that Jill Kelley may not have been boasting of her contacts with high level military figures and indeed show that she was in regular communication with General John Allen and David Petraeus.
Just like many other four-star generals and national intelligence chiefs, Bubba the Love Sponge had dealings with Tampa socialite and some-time honorary consul for South Korea, Jill Kelley
This episode with Bubba the Love Sponge came right before she complained to a FBI agent about threatening emails she was receiving from Paula Broadwell who began an inquiry that uncovered her affair with the retired four-star general.
In addition the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA Director triggered a separate investigation that found “potentially inappropriate” email correspondence between General John Allen and Jill Kelley.
At the time of Jill Kelley’s emails about Bubba the Love Sponge military officials genuinely concerned that a Koran being deep fat fried would have disastrous consequences for U.S. troops serving in Muslim countries.
“It was absolutely a concern,” said Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, CentCom spokesman to NBC News.
Revealing that he called Bubba the Love Sponge himself, T.G. Taylor said he told him: “Look Bubba, somebody’s going to get hurt if you do this.”
He was “completely reasonable and said he understood”, T.G. Taylor added.
The disc jockey told the Tampa Bay Times that he abandoned his plans to deep fat fry because a local law enforcement officer told him of the dangers to U.S. troops.
Reveling in his new found connection to the highest echelons of U.S. military power, Bubba the Love Sponge ordered one of his radio shows trucks to circle Jill Kelley’s Tampa home today playing a parody to the tune of Falco’s Rock me Amadeus about David Petraeus.
At the end of October, former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan settled a lawsuit with Bubba the Love Sponge over a sex tape involving Hogan and the DJ’s wife.
After the agreement between the former best friends, Hulk Hogan’s publicist said the terms of the settlement were confidential.
Hulk Hogan said in the lawsuit filed in October that he had consensual sex with his best friend’s wife, Heather Clem, six years ago in the Clems’ home, but he didn’t know he was being videotaped.
The disc jockey, Bubba the Love Sponge, apologized to Hulk Hogan and said that he’s convinced Hogan was unaware he was being filmed.
A lawsuit is still pending against the gossip website Gawker, which put excerpts of the video on its site.
With world’s media camped on her doorstep and her name and face plastered all over the news, Florida socialite Jill Kelley decided to lash out at Paula Broadwell, the woman she blamed for her life being turned upside down.
Branding Paula Broadwell, the mistress of General Petraeus a “criminal”, Jill Kelley pleaded with the city’s mayor Bob Buckhorn to intervene and remove the press from outside her house.
As recently as Wednesday, Jill Kelley was trading emails with Bob Buckhorn as the fall out from her complaint about threatening emails from Paula Broadwell intensified into the biggest sex scandal for decades.
“As you see on tv, my name (including Gen Petraeus & Allen) and home have been exploited by the media,” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn in an email time stamped 6:18 a.m. Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t care – if they got the facts right and focus on the criminal that stalked all of us. But the truth will one day prevail,” she continued, in an apparent reference to Paula Broadwell.
Jill Kelley lashed out at Paula Broadwell, branding her a criminal who stalked her family
Jill Kelley has been tied to the scandal that prompted the resignation of retired General David Petraeus as CIA director.
David Petraeus admitted having an affair with his married biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Federal officials say Paula Broadwell sent emails to Jill Kelley, perceiving her as a romantic rival. That FBI investigation uncovered emails between Jill Kelley and General John Allen during his time as head of Central Command in Tampa.
She boasted of connections to David Petraeus and other high-ranking officials, and she sought Bob Buckhorn’s presence at events ranging from hosting a group of VIPs from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal to her daughter’s birthday party.
Jill Kelley, the Florida housewife whose complaint over threatening emails revealed David Petraeus’ affair, has attempted to exploit her connections once again.
In her first words since her part in the scandal was revealed over the weekend, Jill Kelley has sent a string of pleading emails to the Tampa Mayor, complaining she has been receiving threats and claiming: “The truth will one day prevail.”
The anguished messages, seen by the Tampa Bay Times, were sent in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday to Bob Buckhorn, whom she knows socially.
Jill Kelley claims her three children are scared to return home and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, has been forced to sleep at the hospital because he cannot get into their driveway, due to the swarms of media.
“Dear Mayor Bob,” Jill Kelley wrote, adding that she, David Petraeus and General John R. Allen – whom she was found to have exchanged “flirtatious” emails with – “have been exploited by the media”.
“I wouldn’t care – if they got the facts right and the focus was on the criminal that stalked all of us,” she added, apparently referring to David Petraeus’ mistress Paula Broadwell.
“But the truth will one day prevail.”
It is the second instance of her trying to exploit her “position” – after she called the police asking for “diplomatic protection” from the media due to her role as honorary consul to South Korea.
“I’m an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property,” Jill Kelley told the 911 operator.
“I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that’s against the law to cross my property because, you know, it’s inviolable.”
But the move backfired – with the police releasing the calls to the media and failing to provide her the protection reserved for those in positions of genuine authority.
“To put insult to injury, your police dept gave the local 911 tapes to the press!” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn, adding that the recordings included her cell number, so: “I have been receiving threats all night.”
“I’m scared and cannot believe what my city, in which I have contributed so much of my love, time, money and leadership, has now done to me and my innocent family,” Jill Kelley wrote.
Bob Buckhorn told the Times that he did nothing in response to Jill Kelley’s complaint and simply said that the 911 recordings were public records.
He added that he knew the Kelleys socially after he won the mayoral race in March 2011 – even though they did not support him in his bid and he had never met them before.
Jill Kelley with General David Petraeus and his wife Holly at her home in 2011
Yet just three weeks after Bob Buckhorn was sworn into office, Dr. Scott Kelley and his wife hosted a reception for him at their lavish $1.3 million home on Bayshore Boulevard.
Jill Kelley has since invited Bob Buckhorn to a string of social events, including her daughter’s sixth birthday party, which are also documented by email, the Times reported.
She invited him and his wife to a dinner party for the King of Jordan and, after he was unable to attend, she wrote to him again.
“The King and his sister [the Princess] are awesome people!” Jill Kelley said.
“Actually your name was brought up by the Generals when they were showing off the party I hosted you! (everyone loved that party).”
They met again when Bob Buckhorn and his wife gave her a ride home following an event at MacDill Air Force Base, for which she organized events as a volunteer social liaison officer.
“Gen. [James] Mattis, was so kind to offer, but I realized you two were passing my way,” Jill Kelley emailed the mayor the following day.
Their messages also show how she involved herself in a spat over a radio host’s claims that he was going to deep fat fry the Koran earlier this year, according to the Times.
Officers at MacDill told the mayor that the publicity stunt could harm troops, and asked him to speak with the host.
Jill Kelley also called the mayor to tell them she had been speaking with Gen. John Allen and Vice Admiral Robert Harward, the deputy commander of CentCom, who said they needed the mayor’s help.
When Buckhorn responded to say it was being dealt with, Jill Kelley said “they asked me to get involved, like I did when it happened with the Pastor last year”.
Her shrewd social-climbing tactics also came to light this week when she was pictured with Marco Rubio and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, when he was running for the Senate.
The photograph was tweeted by Republican Angelette Aviles who said that it was taken at a March 2010 fundraiser, where tickets were $1,000.
But the twins didn’t pay – instead, they appeared, took the photo and left, Angelette Aviles told the Times. They did not contribute to his campaign.
Yet over the past week, Jill Kelley’s connections have given her more exposure than she was perhaps intending.
After David Petraeus dramatically resigned from the top of the CIA last Friday, it emerged that Jill Kelley had played a key role in exposing his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
In May, Jill Kelley alerted the FBI that she had been receiving threatening, anonymous emails warning her to “back off” David Petraeus, whom Kelley and her husband are good friends with.
The FBI was forced to launch an in-depth investigation as some messages contained classified information about David Petraeus’ whereabouts, and they feared there could have been a security breach.
