On November 29, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to meet Mitt Romney for a second time despite one of his top aides launching a public campaign against the former Massachusetts governor’s nomination.
Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke out against Mitt Romney on November 27, saying Donald Trump’s supporters felt “betrayed” he would consider the 2012 Republican nominee for the prominent role.
Mitt Romney was one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics during the campaign.
Donald Trump will also sit down with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee.
The two men are leading contenders for the all-important diplomatic post.
Earlier, Donald Trump met retired General David Petraeus. He said he was “very impressed” with the former CIA director in a tweet after their meeting on November 28.
David Petraeus pleaded guilty in 2015 to mishandling classified information over documents he had shared with his biographer Paula Broadwell, with whom he was also having an affair.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus has been put on probation and fined for leaking material to his mistress Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus resigned from his post at the CIA in 2012 after it emerged he was having an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
The retired four-star general could have faced a year in prison, after his guilty plea two months ago.
David Petraeus led the 2007 troop surge in the Iraq war and served as commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
He reached a plea bargain with prosecutors after admitting to leaking sensitive material to Paula Broadwell while she was working on a book about him.
Prosecutors said that he gave her eight binders of classified material in 2011, which he had improperly kept from his time leading the war in Afghanistan.
In a federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, David Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000.
Prosecutors recommended the same length of probation, but a smaller fine of $40,000.
Judge David Kessler raised the fine to “reflect the seriousness of the offence”.
Appearing in court before the sentencing, David Petraeus apologized for his actions.
Former CIA director David Petraeus has reached a plea deal with the US Department of Justice in which he will admit to mishandling classified materials.
It ends a long investigation into whether he provided secret information to his mistress Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus resigned from his post at the CIA in 2012, after it emerged he was having an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.
A DoJ statement said a plea agreement had been filed.
The deal means that David Petraeus will plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, but could avoid an embarrassing trial.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, the New York Times reported.
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The retired four-star general was in charge of America’s recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was once considered a contender for the Republican presidential ticket.
David Petraeus had an affair with Paula Broadwell in 2011 during which time she was interviewing him for a biography she was writing.
Three days after the 2012 general election, David Petraeus resigned as the director of the CIA and admitted to the affair but at the time he denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The FBI discovered the affair during a cyberstalking investigation following allegations made by one of the former general’s friends, Jill Kelley.
They determined that Paula Broadwell had been sending threatening emails to Jill Kelley, and during the investigation they discovered evidence that suggested David Petraeus had shared the classified information.
Ex-CIA director David Petraeus should be charged with providing classified information to former mistress Paula Broadwell, prosecutors have recommended.
The New York Times first reported the news, citing officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A decorated former general, David Petraeus resigned as CIA chief in 2012 after details of his affair with Paula Broadwell emerged.
He was a commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before taking the role.
A US Justice Department investigation is focusing on whether David Petraeus gave Paula Broadwell access to his CIA email and other classified information while director of the organization, the newspaper says.
FBI agents discovered classified documents on Paula Broadwell’s computer after David Petraeus quit, according to the New York Times.
Photo AP
The recommendations to press criminal charges from the FBI and US Justice Department would leave Attorney General Eric Holder with a decision on whether to seek an indictment, which could see David Petraeus jailed if found guilty.
David Petraeus has said he never provided classified information to Paula Broadwell, according to the paper.
The affair reportedly began in 2011, while Paula Broadwell was working on a biography of David Petraeus.
In the same year, David Petraeus resigned from his commanding position in Afghanistan to take on the CIA role.
David Petraeus resigned from the CIA in 2012, saying he had shown “extremely poor judgment” in conducting the affair.
President Barack Obama paid tribute to David Petraeus at the time, saying he had “provided extraordinary service to the United States for decades”.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus has apologized to those he “hurt and let down”, in his first public speech since resigning over his extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus said at the University of Southern California military event his actions had caused “pain for family and friends”.
But the retired general said he hoped his fall would teach others that “life doesn’t stop with such a mistake and must go on”.
David Petraeus quit after his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell was discovered during an FBI investigation.
He was speaking to about 600 guests at the University of Southern California’s annual Reserve Officers’ Training Corps dinner.
David Petraeus has apologized to those he “hurt and let down”, in his first public speech since resigning over his extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell
David Petraeus received a standing ovation, then began his speech by saying: “Needless to say, I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago.”
The former CIA chief said he was also “keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing”.
David Petraeus added: “So please allow me to begin my remarks this evening by reiterating how deeply I regret – and apologize for – the circumstances that led me to resign from the CIA and caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters.”
David Petraeus has kept a low profile since resigning on November 9, 2012.
His lawyer said David Petraeus had spent much of the time with his family.
A harassment complaint by Florida socialite Jill Kelley over emails she had received had led the FBI to unmask the affair.
Jill Kelley knew David Petraeus through social contacts on the Florida military base where US Central Command is headquartered.
When the FBI investigated, it traced the emails to an apparently jealous Paula Broadwell.
Jill Kelley also knew the top US general in Afghanistan, General John Allen. John Allen also sent emails to Jill Kelley but has been cleared of any misconduct.
Towards the end of his speech, David Petraeus said he hoped his experience “can be instructive to others who stumble or indeed fall as far as I did. One learns, after all, that life doesn’t stop with such a mistake. It can and must go on”.
David Petraeus added: “I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others.
“I can, however, try to move forward in a manner that is consistent to the values to which I subscribed before slipping my moorings and, as best as possible, to make amends to those I have hurt and let down.”
Former CIA director David Petraeus is making his first public speech since resigning in November over his extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus is scheduled to speak on Tuesday night at a University of Southern California event honoring the military as he carves out a role for himself as a voice on energy, economic and veterans issues.
A prepared text of his speech, obtained by The New York Times, indicates David Petraeus will apologize for the affair with Paula Broadwell.
David Petraeus is expected to acknowledge that he’s “regarded in a different light now” than he was a year ago and that he’ll try to make amends and move forward as best he can.
“I am also keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing,” David Petraeus will say, according to The New York Times.
“So please allow me to begin my remarks this evening by reiterating how deeply I regret – and apologize for – the circumstances that led me to resign from the C.I.A. and caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters.”
David Petraeus will apologize for the affair with Paula Broadwell in his first public speech since resignation at a University of Southern California event
David Petraeus, 60, a famed Iraq and Afghan war, is a general retired from the military in 2011 who went on to lead the CIA.
President Barack Obama accepted his resignation from the CIA on November 9, saying David Petraeus had “made our country safer and stronger”, after he admitted having an affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.
David Petraeus will talk about the importance of supporting the families of military personnel and will close his speech by once again referring to his mistakes.
“I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others,” the decorated general will say.
“I can, however, try to move forward in a manner that is consistent with the values to which I subscribed before slipping my moorings and, as best as possible, to make amends to those I have hurt and let down.”
David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell affair was discovered during an FBI investigation into emails Broadwell sent to another woman she saw as a rival for Petraeus’ attention – emails the other woman viewed as threatening.
He told his staffers at the time that he was guilty of “extremely poor judgment” in the affair.
“Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,” David Petraeus told CIA employees in a statement.
After the affair, David Petraeus testified behind closed doors about the Benghazi attack but kept out of the public eye after the very powerful media storm which blew up in the wake of the scandal.
In recent months, however, David Petraeus has increasingly appeared in public for lunches and dinners with former colleagues, foreign officials, members of Congress and policy experts.
Florida socialite Jill Kelley has finally broken her silence over David Petraeus affair since the scandal erupted three months ago and said she never met Paula Broadwell, who tried to “blackmail, extort and threaten her”.
Jill Kelley – who has been described as the “other other woman” in David Petraeus affair – has been accused of many things since the scandal erupted.
The Lebanese-born socialite was accused of having an affair with David Petraeus as they exchanged more than 30,000 emails, that she had an affair with General John Allen and that she used cancer charity funds for entertainment purposes.
Jill Kelley, 37, said from the moment the blackmailing email was sent to an account she shared with her husband Scott, her life was turned upside down as she went from wealthy Tampa socialite to a maligned, scamming mistress.
She said she was terrified by the anonymous email and admitted in the barrage that followed there was “blackmail, extortion, threats”.
She would later learn they were from biographer Paula Broadwell, whose affair with David Petraeus triggered his resignation as CIA director.
Speaking to The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz, Jill Kelley said she had no idea who Paula was or of her relationship with Petraeus.
When Jill Kelley complained to a friend in the FBI, she had no idea of the chain of events she was about to set in motion – including finding herself accused of having an affair with General John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, which both flatly deny.
“I knew I was being stalked. I did what anybody else would have done when they were feeling threatened, to go seek protection from somebody I could trust,” she said.
Jill Kelley has finally broken her silence over David Petraeus affair since the scandal erupted three months ago
In the interview, Jill Kelley mainly dwells on the impact the scandal has had on her husband and children, recounting a party she threw soon after for her daughter’s seventh birthday.
“It was devastating. To have your privacy invaded is truly…there are no words to describe it,” she said.
“Instead of enjoying a family birthday party, I had paparazzi storming my front lawn, pushing down the door. There are no words to describe the panic and fear at that moment.
“As much as I appreciate that [the media] want to be the first one to come out with a headline, regardless of whether they did any fact-checking, they have to consider the impact they have on our life and our children’s lives,” Jill Kelley says.
“Just because it’s repeated doesn’t make it true. It was living a nightmare.”
Jill Kelley said a lot of reports in the media were not true, or greatly exaggerated, including that she had exchanged as many as 30,000 emails with Gen. John Allen.
While she did not provide an estimate, she said it was probably somewhere in the hundreds.
When asked about her relationship with John Allen, whom she met when she hosted a birthday party for David Petraeus’ wife Holly,
“We’re friends, good friends,” she said.
That friendship continued by email when Allen was sent to Kabul.
The general’s promotion to be commander of NATO forces is on hold while investigators examine the email traffic between him and Jill Kelley – but sources have described it as flirtatious and potentially inappropriate.
But she contests this, saying they were sent from an account she shared with her husband and that sometimes John Allen’s wife was even copied in.
Jill Kelley said it has been particularly difficult for her cancer surgeon husband, who she deems “an honorable guy” but what she wants the public to know is simple.
“I’m a dedicated mother, a loving wife. We have a very happy, close family. I support the troops. I take pride in feeding the homeless in our community. This whole situation is just very sad.”
In the fallout from the Petraeus scandal, which cost the decorated former General his job as CIA director, Jill Kelly also lost her title as an Honorary Consul to South Korea.
She was also banned from visiting MacDill Airforce base in her role as a social liaison officer and told to remove vanity license plates that carried the title “Honorary Consul”.
Jill Kelley, a mother of two, has never spoken publicly about her involvement in the scandal but is believed to be writing a tell-all book.
David Petraeus has admitted to close friend James Shelton that he “screwed up royally” over the affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell – and confirmed for the first time that his wife is standing by him.
In his most frank comments on the scandal, David Petraeus said that he had created “enormous difficulty” for Holly Petraeus but revealed that she has not kicked him out.
In a letter David Petraeus said that Team Petraeus will survive and that he is “incredibly fortunate” to be married to such a forgiving woman.
He also addressed his resignation for the first time and wrote: “I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day.”
The letter was sent on November 20 to his close friend of three decades, retired Brigadier General James Shelton, who considers himself a father figure to him.
Brig. Gen. James Shelton blamed biographer Paula Broadwell for the affair as Petraeus was the “innocent one when it came to relationships”.
He also claimed that she is a “savvy woman” who knows a lot more about matters of the heart than David Petraeus, who has spent the bulk of his life in the military and has been married for 37 years.
David Petraeus’ letter appears to confirm reports that his wife is “furious” at him over his behavior, which came to light earlier this month when in a statement admitted he had had an extra-marital affair and quit as head of the CIA.
The New York Times has reported that he has resigned himself to being “in the doghouse” for at least a year and now passes the time sitting around his home emailing friends.
David Petraeus, 60, and his wife Holly spent Thanksgiving together trying to rebuild their shattered marriage and regain the trust of their two grown up children at their home in Arlington, Virginia.
Paula Broadwell, 40, did that same with her husband Scott and their two young sons at their mansion in Charlotte, North Carolina.
David Petraeus has admitted to close friend James Shelton that he screwed up royally over the affair with Paula Broadwell
The letter David Petraeus sent to Brig. Gen. James Shelton, a Vietnam Veteran who fought with the famous Black Lion Battalion, was on Four Star General letterhead and had the post mark from the PO Box in Arlington, that he uses for correspondence.
It began by thanking Brig. Gen. James Shelton for the sending him some pictures of his own family and a note which said he still had faith in him.
It read: “I screwed up royally. I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day.
“Team Petraeus will survive though have obviously created enormous difficulty for us. Holly is however once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her.”
Brig. Gen. James Shelton, who has been awarded three Bronze Stars for bravery, said that he still thinks that David Petraeus is the best officer has ever seen – even if he is a love rat.
In his opinion the resignation was an “overreaction” for “human things he got involved with”.
James Shelton said: “I never knew David as being a woman chaser – he never gave a damn about anybody other than Holly.
“It never entered my mind that he would get involved with anybody else.
“Paula was more savvy than Dave about the nature of the things that they got involved with.”
General James Shelton explained that Paula Broadwell interviewed him whilst doing research for her biography of David Petraeus, titled All In.
He said that Paula Broadwell was “very persuasive” and managed to get him to talk about his friend on the phone without having to meet in person.
Brig. Gen. James Shelton, 76, said: “She was a beautiful woman, very intelligent and if David would say something she would know what he was talking about.
“They were both West Point Academy graduates, that’s what put them together. She had a lot of the qualities that he had.
“She’s also a savvy woman. She’s not a kid. In a lot of ways I think she knows more about the world than Dave – I’m talking about sex.
“I don’t think Dave ever thought about that too much, he only thought about the Army and gave it everything he had.
“When he got close to her it became something new and different than what he had with his wife
“I don’t believe he had any relationships with anybody else (apart from Broadwell).
“He was the innocent one when it came to relationships. It wasn’t his bag. He was a soldier. He just wasn’t involved with it.”
James Shelton however said that alarm bells rang in his mind when Paula Broadwell told him that she was going to Afghanistan to “learn how Dave operated”.
He said: “I thought that because he was over there (Afghanistan) she might have been the only outlet he had for any kind of recreation, if you get what I mean.
“He’s a human dynamo, he works all the time and she was always following him around.
“I think Paula Broadwell was in love with him. I could see it happening.
“I could see that he has so many qualities that any woman with any sense would say: <<Boy! This guy – there doesn’t seem to be a better man than this around>>.”
Brig. Gen. James Shelton, who lives in Cape Haze, Florida, first met David Petraeus in the 1970s when they were serving together in Erzurum, Turkey when Petraeus was a lowly second lieutenant in the 173rd Airborne Divison.
James Shelton said: “I walked into a tent with a bottle of Ballantine whiskey that I’d stashed in my spare boots.
“I opened it and asked if anybody wanted some, and I’m pretty sure Dave was among those who said yes, so I served it in canteen cups.
“Even then he was so interested in what I had to say. He was asking me questions about everything – I liked the cut of his jib straight away.”
They met again when they served together in the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and stayed in touch ever since.
In one assessment of David Petraeus when he was just a captain, Brig. Gen. James Shelton described him as the “finest officer I have ever known”.
He said: “I regard David Petraeus as one of my sons – and I have three others. I feel like a father figure to him. I served in the army for 27 years and he was the best officer bar none.
“He is a giant of a man.”
David Petraeus’ letter in full
“Dear Jim (if I may)
I can’t thank you enough for your note, kind words and support. I can’t tell you how much it all meant.
I screwed up royally. I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day.
Team Petraeus will survive though have obviously created enormous difficulty for us. Holly is however once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her.
Beyond that thanks for sending me the photos and various items you did. It was good indeed to recall some of the good guys and the good days. Great stuff.
Paula Broadwell looks determined to prove that her marriage is back on track following the highly public fallout over her affair with ex-CIA chief General David Petraeus.
Paula Broadwell, 40, spent Thanksgiving with her husband Dr. Scott Broadwell and their young sons.
A family friend confirmed: “Paula and Scott are working things out.
“They spent Thanksgiving together at a friend’s beach house with their children. Paula is laying low, she is concentrating on her marriage and her family, that is her priority now.”
Paula Broadwell looks determined to prove that her marriage is back on track following the highly public fallout over her affair with ex-CIA chief General David Petraeus
David Petraeus has consigned himself to a year in the doghouse with his wife Holly Petraeus even though he is getting “cabin fever” stuck at home while he waits for the attention around his sex scandal to die down.
Friends have revealed that David Petraeus has given up his relentless schedule of high level meetings for “self-imposed exile” and groveling to his family.
Gone are his five-mile runs in the open air every morning in Washington D.C. – instead he has confined himself indoors and is working out on a treadmill.
David Petraeus has also traded CIA briefings for emailing friends to chat and catching up on his reading.
Meanwhile his wife of 38 years, Holly Petraeus, has made a point of going to work every day and leaving him home alone.
Among the blog posts she has written in her role as a spokeswoman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the line: “You know the old saying: <<If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is>>.”
According to the New York Times, friends of David Petraeus are “concerned” that a man so used to constantly working has nothing to do for the first time in his life.
His main focus is lying low and salvaging his marriage given that Holly Petraeus is said to be “furious” over his conduct and has threatened to divorce him.
David Petraeus’s close friend Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the Army, said: “Basically he’s the same guy but considerably more subdued, in terms of his spirit.
“And that’s understandable. His voice doesn’t have the same peppiness in it.”
Friends have revealed that David Petraeus has given up his relentless schedule of high level meetings for self-imposed exile and groveling to his family
David Petraeus is said to be weighing up his options about what to do the in the future including offers for a book deal, speaking engagements and interest from various corporations to serve on their boards.
Having hired media super-lawyer Robert Barnett he could also become a talking head on TV.
For now, however, he hardly leaves the house and is having to prove to Holly Petraeus that he deserves her trust again. The New York Times said he plans to put his life on hold for the next 12 months to sort out the mess.
A friend said: “Several of us are concerned. He’s a very active individual. He needs to stay active.”
Another friend said: “I asked him whether he’d seen a certain article, and he said: <<No, send it my way. I’m looking for something to read right now>>.
“He kept such a grueling schedule. This is unchartered territory for him right now.”
Meanwhile Holly Petraeus has been in the office every day at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in her role running the Office of Service Member Affairs.
She has written two blog posts in the last week including one about the dangers of buying a flood damaged car which includes the line: “Once you’ve signed the contract you’re committed, so Know Before You Owe!”
Until the scandal became public, the Petraeuses seemed to have a rock solid marriage.
They met on a blind date when David Petraeus was a student at the military academy at West Point, where Holly’s father was the superintendent.
He graduated in June 1947 and the couple married the following month, before going on to have two children, Ann and Stephen, and traveling the world with his work.
Despite moving 24 times in 38 years, Holly Petraeus has also built her own career.
She became a volunteer, performing military and family support roles on bases, before assuming her current title.
A source has told the National Enquirer that David Petraeus has been “falling all over himself” apologizing but she “isn’t listening”.
The source said: “After all his lies, she doesn’t believe anything he says anymore, and she’s thinking about consulting a divorce attorney.”
Friends have also given fresh insight into how David Petraeus became involved with Army reservist Paula Broadwell whilst she was writing his biography.
A friend said that the general initially thought it was a book on Afghanistan and that he “belatedly” realized it was about him.
When Paula Broadwell told him about the six-figure advance he thought: “Well, I better help her to get it halfway right rather than pushing her away to have something come out that was half-baked.”
He also admitted that after breaking off the relationship he continued to help Paula Broadwell with the project to try and put things back on a more “professional plane”.
An oversized painted portrait of Florida socialite Jill Kelley and her surgeon husband Scott is hanging on the wall of their $1.3 million Bayshore Boulevard mansion.
The ostentatious gold-framed commission no doubt adorned the wall during one of Jill Kelley’s parties she famously hosted as an unpaid, unofficial social liaison for U.S. Central Command.
But appearances can be deceptive and the couple portrayed smiling widely have been sued for $4.1 million of debts and are, as we found out this month, at the centre of the biggest sex scandal to rock the U.S. in living memory.
Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Florida housewife, unveiled the David Petraeus sex scandal when she contacted the FBI about harassing emails from his mistress Paula Broadwell.
After Jill Kelley contacted the FBI, agents launched a massive in-depth investigation into who was sending the emails because they shared this detailed information that was not publicly available.
The catty emails, which told Jill Kelley to “back off” from David Petraeus, were sent to Kelley from several fake email addresses.
In order to find who had confidential information about David Petraeus’ whereabouts, the FBI obtained an administrative subpoena, and traced them back to Paula Broadwell.
In the course of the investigation, they also unearthed emails indicating the affair between Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus, leading to his resignation earlier his month.
At her glamorous home the lawns are perfectly manicured – the residence has six bedrooms and four bathrooms for the hundreds of military guests who used to attend parties there.
A closer look, however, and you notice that the paint is peeling on the outside and wooden chairs at all rather too well worn.
An oversized painted portrait of Florida socialite Jill Kelley and her surgeon husband Scott is hanging on the wall of their $1.3 million Bayshore Boulevard mansion
Jill Kelley boasted about serving dinner to David Petraeus and his wife Holly in 2007.
Holly Petraeus and her husband were pictured next to the Kelleys and Jill Kelley’s twin sister, Natalie Khawam.
Each year Jill Kelley and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, host a party on their extensive manicured front lawn to celebrate the Gasparilla Festival in Tampa.
In 2010 General David Petraeus and his wife Holly attended the pirate themed festival staged at the Kelley’s home.
David Petraeus arrived with a 28 motorcycle escort and mingled with more than 200 guests who dined on crab cakes and lamb chops.
At this year’s Gasparilla festival, where pirate themed floats are driven through Tampa, the Kelley’s hosted military officers from 60 nations to a coalition appreciation party.
Tight security surrounded the Kelley’s home during the event.
One neighbor complained that it resulted in the street running alongside the Kelley’s red and white painted mansion being closed off to traffic for the day.
“You soon know when Jill is having a party It’s like having the president come to town as everything shuts down. There is security everywhere and you cannot move,” said one neighbor.
Jill Kelley, who said she has known General David Petraeus and his wife Holly for five years, has visited them in Washington DC. She is also reported to have been invited to a breakfast at the White House.
In recognition of her work with officials at CENTCOM, Jill Kelley was recently named as honorary consulate general to South Korea.
A new facet in the David Petraeus scandal has unfolded as it emerged that Paula Broadwell once modeled and served as spokeswoman for Kriss Arms, a Virginia Beach machine gun production company.
Paula Broadwell is featured in an advertisement for Kriss Arms, where she leans on years of military research and her shooting savvy to praise the design of the guns.
Her proximity to David Petraeus, one of the highest-ranking members of the American military, and her commercial endorsement of a gun manufacturer will appear suspicious and likely add more fodder for federal investigators.
The commercial was posted in March of this year, at the same time she was reportedly having an affair with the then-CIA director who previously was the head of U.S. military command in Afghanistan.
“Clearly computer technology cannot solve all the problems in modern warfare, for example a computer can’t come up with a strategy to win a war. Neither can a computer or technology galvanize unity of effort which is critical in these wars… those are all human efforts. It can be empowered and enabled by technology but it comes down to human endeavor at the end of the day,” Paula Broadwell says in the video.
Producers of the video included that she was the author of General David Petraeus’ biography as the justification for her participation on screen, and while she did not explicitly mention her lover by name, it is clear that she was thinking of the man she repeatedly called an “inspirational figure”.
Paula Broadwell is featured in an advertisement for Kriss Arms, where she leans on years of military research and her shooting savvy to praise the design of the guns
In portions of her interview, Paula Broadwell uses her military background to justify the improvements made by Kriss Arms.
“On the individual fighter, reducing weight is critical because of fatigue and stress. Weight reduction can greatly improve the efficiency of a firearm,” she says.
“It allows the trooper to carry it further, obviously, if an individual is out there in the battlefield. And that trooper should have more confidence in the system he’s carrying, ideally, if the system is a manned aerial vehicle or again a heavy vehicle the range of the system will be longer, less resupply of fuels and other materials.”
Paula Broadwell doesn’t simply rest on her brains when it comes to touting the company’s guns, however, as she is seen using one of their models to shoot at targets in a Virginia Beach range.
During one segment, she successfully hits four targets out of five consecutive shots.
David Crane, who is also featured in the six-minute video, told The National Enquirer that he took particular notice of the mother-of-two when she changed out of the professional clothes she was wearing and slipped into something more befitting the shooting range.
“She changed into those tight jeans and riding boots specifically to shoot guns at the firing range,” David Crane said.
“She looked very sexy shooting a submachine gun, so I started taking her picture. She was a decent shot and didn’t seem to have a problem hitting the targets.”
There is no denying the connection between Paula Broadwell and the machine gun company, as she apparently posted about her time as a “model/demonstrator” for Kriss Vector on both her website bio and her LinkedIn profile before making them private once the scandal hit.
The company is now keeping their distance, however, as the CEO John Spurrier downplayed her involvement.
“Mrs. Broadwell did participate as a subject matter expert and demonstrator… about the company’s products, but has never had any official affiliation with the company,” he told ABC News.
Now the only posing that Paula Broadwell is doing is that of the reluctant troublemaker, as she has been seen going to and from relatives’ homes in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
The “threatening” emails sent by Paula Broadwell to Florida socialite Jill Kelley – that eventually uncovered Broadwell’s affair with David Petraeus – vowed to make her perceived rival “go away”, it has been claimed.
The messages sent to Jill Kelley, who contacted the FBI after receiving them in May, were so menacing that the military party planner feared for her life, according to a friend.
The friend, who has not been identified, said that Jill Kelley, a military party planner in Tampa, had called her to seek advice after receiving the messages and read them out over the phone.
Speaking to the New York Daily News, she described the messages as much more threatening than originally reported, adding: “Any normal person who got emails like that would have immediately called police.”
In the messages, which were sent anonymously, Paula Broadwell promised to “make you go away” and boasted about her military background and having “powerful” friends, the Daily News reported.
“This wasn’t just a case of cyber-bullying,” the friend said.
“[Jill Kelley] was scared for her life. She had reason to be. These emails are the real thing. When she read them to me, I literally had the shivers.”
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that, in one email, Paula Broadwell had accused Jill Kelley of touching “him” underneath a table and asked if Kelley’s husband was aware of her actions.
In another, Paula Broadwell asked: “Who do you think you are?”
The threatening emails sent by Paula Broadwell to Florida socialite Jill Kelley vowed to make her perceived rival go away
Paula Broadwell also accused Jill Kelley, a David Petraeus family friend, of “parad[ing] around the base”, adding: “You need to take it down a notch.”
But the threatening emails, which had previously been described as “cat-fight stuff”, led to Paula Broadwell’s undoing after Jill Kelley contacted a friend in the FBI about the messages.
The anonymous emails contained classified information about David Petraeus’ whereabouts and, thinking there had been a potential national security breach, the FBI was forced to investigate.
During their probe, they traced the emails back to Paula Broadwell and also uncovered emails revealing her months-long affair with CIA boss David Petraeus, whose biography she had penned.
But investigators also found tens of thousands of emails between Jill Kelley and General John R. Allen, head of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and deemed some “inappropriate” and “flirtatious”.
General John Allen, a married father of two, is now under investigation, but both he and Jill Kelley deny any wrongdoing.
Jill Kelley has also denied being any more than friends with David Petraeus and released a statement saying: “We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus for over five years. We respect his family’s privacy and want the same for us and our three children.”
Jill Kelley’s twin sister sister, Natalie Khawam, has also been dragged into the scandal, with reports detailing her troubled child custody battles and shrewd socializing skills. Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred is now representing her.
The latest revelations about the contents of the emails – which eventually led to David Petraeus’ resignation from the CIA on November 9 – come as Paula Broadwell moved back home with her husband and children.
A week after the nation learned of Paula Broadwell’s months-long affair with CIA boss David Petraeus, it appears as if her husband, Dr. Scott Broadwell, is getting the support he needs.
Dr. Scott Broadwell has been pictured embracing a friend in the doorway of his Charlotte, North Carolina home a day after he returned with his shamed wife and their two sons.
Paula Broadwell, who was photographed on the school run and carrying out errands on Monday as she struggled to get back to normality, has told friends she deeply regrets the damage to her family.
A close friend has revealed Paula Broadwell is desperately trying to repair the damage and move forward.
After the scandal broke more than a week ago following David Petraeus’ resignation as director of the CIA, she stayed with her brother at his home in Washington D.C. but returned to North Carolina yesterday.
Dr. Scott Broadwell has been pictured at his Charlotte, North Carolina home a day after he returned with his shamed wife and their two sons
The family was welcomed by a group of friends and neighbors on her return, and a friend – who did not want to be named – said that Paula Broadwell was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
Paula Broadwell maintained her stony silence after being confronted by a number of reporters when she pulled up in an SUV, according to WSOC-TV.
Dr. Scott Broadwellrefused to comment, but appeared happy to joke about the media circus which has surrounded his family since November 9 – the day David Petraeus resigned.
Stephen Kranz, brother of David Petraeus’ biographer-turned-mistress, Paula Broadwell, has revealed how she is “incredibly sorry” for hurting her family and has acknowledged she made a mistake.
Stephen Kranz spoke out after his sister returned to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband Scott and their young sons after hiding out at his Washington D.C. mansion for a week.
“She’s been devastated by this,” Stephen Kranz told People Magazine.
“She is filled with guilt and shame for what she’s done and she’s incredibly sorry for the pain she’s caused her husband, her family, Petraeus’s family. She accepts responsibility for her actions and knows she made a mistake.”
Stephen Kranz added that Paula Broadwell is now committed to repairing the damage to her family and protecting her children from the furor following the months-long affair and David Petraeus’ resignation.
It comes as her husband, Dr. Scott Broadwell, was pictured embracing a friend in the doorway of their home the day after returning with his shamed wife – in a sign he is getting much-needed support from loved ones.
Paula Broadwell was also pictured on Monday during the school run and as she carried out errands, suggesting she is attempting to get back to normality after the massive military scandal.
Paula Broadwell is now committed to repairing the damage to her family and protecting her children from the furor following the months-long affair and David Petraeus’ resignation
As the family returned home on Sunday, they were welcomed by a group of friends and neighbors, and a close friend – who did not want to be named – said Paula Broadwell was overwhelmed by the support.
Paula Broadwell maintained her stony silence after being confronted by a number of reporters when she pulled up in an SUV, according to WSOC-TV.
Dr. Scott Broadwell refused to comment, but appeared happy to joke about the media circus which has surrounded his family since November 9 – the day David Petraeus resigned.
Paula Broadwell was wearing large sunglasses and showed no emotion as she tried to hide her face from waiting photographers.
Dr. Scott Broadwell revealed that the family would be releasing a statement soon, but did not elaborate on when it would be.
The head of the House Intelligence Committee suggested on Sunday that President Barack Obama might have known about former CIA Director David Petraeus’ extra-marital affair before the November election, and said Attorney General Eric Holder should address this question soon before Congress.
U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, said Eric Holder’s statement that the Justice Department had not informed the president before the election implied that Holder might have told Barack Obama privately.
Mike Rogers noted that the FBI investigation of the communications between David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell arose due to concern over a counter-intelligence threat. Both David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell have said they did not share any security secrets, and investigators have said they have found no security breach.
“It probably should have been brought forward earlier as a national security threat,” Mike Rogers said.
“I’m not sure that the president was not told before Election Day. The attorney general said that the Department of Justice did not notify the president, but we don’t know if the attorney general…[notified him],” he said.
Mike Rogers said Eric Holder should come before the intelligence committees to discuss it.
“We could resolve this very quickly with a conversation in the intelligence spaces if he did have that conversation with the president.”
Barack Obama may have known about David Petraeus affair with Paula Broadwell before election
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein disagreed, saying Holder had explained to the intelligence committees there was no notification while the investigation was under way. Justice and the FBI took this approach, she said, “so there is an ability to move ahead without any political weighing-in on any side”.
David Petraeus admitted to the affair and resigned his post at the CIA three days after Barack Obama was elected to a second term on November 6.
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham called the FBI investigation of the affair “the oddest story in the world” and doubted Barack Obama knew before the election.
Paula Broadwell is devastated by the fallout from her affair with David Petraeus, a close friend of hers revealed on Sunday night as she returned to family home after several days in hiding.
The friend said that Paula Broadwell deeply regrets the damage that has been done to her family and others, and insisted she was trying to repair that and move forward.
Paula Broadwell, who was writing a biography of David Petraeus when they started an extra-marital affair, has been staying with her brother in Washington DC ever since news of the relationship broke more than a week ago.
But she moved back in to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, accompanied by her husband and their two children.
The family was welcomed by a group of friends and neighbors on her return, and a friend – who did not want to be named – said that Paula Broadwell was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.
Paula Broadwell maintained her stony silence after being confronted by a number of reporters when she pulled up in an SUV, according to WSOC-TV.
Paula Broadwell moved back in to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, accompanied by her husband and their two children
Her husband, Dr. Scott Broadwell refused to comment, but appeared happy to joke about the media circus which has surrounded his family since last Friday, when the scandal became public following David Petraeus’ resignation as director of the CIA.
Paula broadwell was wearing large sunglasses and showed no emotion as she tried to hide her face from waiting photographers.
Scott Broadwell was asked: “Is there anything at all you’d like to say, Scott? Now’s your chance, this is it.”
But after pausing for a moment, he simply replied: “No comment at this time.”
Scott Broadwell later returned to the driveway to take groceries out of the car and joked with reporters, saying: “I’ll be out here Tuesday taking out trash, if you want to shoot that.”
The doctor revealed that the family would be releasing a statement soon, but did not elaborate on when it would be.
Paula and Scott Broadwell were seen in public for the first time on Saturday night returning to her brother’s $2.3 million home after apparently going out for dinner in the Washington area.
Looking stern and taking the lead from her husband, Paula Broadwell did not speak to the gathered news reporters as she marched into her sibling’s home.
It was the first time that Paula Broadwell had been seen since Tuesday evening, when she was photographed wearing a hot pink top in the kitchen of her brother’s home.
Friends and family of the pair told reporters in the wake of the affair revelations that the Broadwells had built a happy home in Charlotte, where they live with their two sons, Lucien 6, and Landon, 4.
When Paula Broadwell, the biographer mistress of David Petraeus, was discovered to be hiding out at her brother Stephen Kranz’s handsome Washington D.C. townhouse, many would have thought that as far as bolt holes go she did just fine.
After figuratively going to ground following the revelation of her affair with CIA chief David Petraeus and his resignation, Paula Broadwell was photographed earlier in the week with glass of wine in hand preparing an evening meal in the grand kitchen of the $2.3 million home.
Since then, Paula Broadwell has evaded the massed ranks of the media who have camped outside the Mount Pleasant home, but with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, cabin fever might not set in for the 40-year-old West Point graduate any time soon.
It was Paula Broadwell who was allegedly responsible for setting off the chain of events which led to her being hounded by the world’s press to the front door of her brother Stephen Kranz’s home at 1841 Park Road.
Paula Broadwell is believed to have sent threatening emails to Tampa socialite, Jill Kelley, who she perceived as a rival for the affections of retired four star general David Petraeus.
Jill Kelley in turn reported these messages to a friendly FBI agent who set off an investigation which uncovered evidence of the affair and “inappropriate” exchanges between Kelley and General John Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
In fact the bombshell of the illicit affair that rocked the nation broke when Paula Broadwell and her husband Scott were enjoying a two-day break at the Middleton Inn in Little Washington, Virginia.
The beautiful and stately home became the centre of the world’s news when Paula Broadwell was seen looking strained and tense while holding a glass of wine in her hand on Tuesday evening.
Stephen Kranz’s home became the centre of the world’s news when Paula Broadwell was seen looking strained and tense while holding a glass of wine in her hand on Tuesday evening
Reporters were first alerted to her possible presence in Washington D.C. when her drivers licence was found by a jogger in nearby Rock Creek Park.
Indeed, 1841 Park Road is part of local history for the civil rights movement.
In 1950, two years after the U.S. Supereme Court ruled that neighborhood covenants restricting home ownership on the basis of race, the house was purchased by a Dr. Robert Deane, who was black.
The all-white residents of Mount Pleasant tried to sue to block the sale, but courts threw their complaints out and the sale went through.
Dr. Robert Deane lived in the property until his death in 2001.
Linked arm-in-arm, Paula Broadwell and her husband, Dr. Scott Broadwell, were seen together yesterday evening for the first time since the news broke of her affair with shamed former CIA Director David Petraeus.
Arriving at her brother’s home in the Mount Pleasant suburb of Washington D.C. in a black SUV, Paula and Scott Broadwell put on what was a clear show of solidarity as they marched from the garage to the back door of the $2.3 million property.
Since the scandalous revelations surrounding his wife first surfaced just over a week ago, Scott Broadwell has been conspicuous for his absence and his appearance last night indicates that he is standing by the West Point Graduate.
Looking stern and taking the lead from her husband, Paula Broadwell did not speak to the gathered news reporters as she marched into her sibling’s home.
Presumably, the pair had been out that evening, possibly at dinner and it is not clear when Scott Broadwell arrived at the home or when Paula herself left.
Indeed, this is the first time that Paula Broadwell has been seen since Tuesday evening, when she was photographed wearing a hot pink top in the kitchen of her brother’s home.
She has been holed up there since returning from what was supposed to be a romantic get-away with Scott Broadwell to celebrate her 40th birthday – which was curtailed when news of the Petraeus affair broke over one week ago.
Friends and family of the pair told reporters in the wake of the affair revelations that the Broadwell’s had built a happy home in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they live with their two sons, Lucien 6, and Landon, 4.
Paula Broadwell and Dr. Scott Broadwell were seen together for the first time since the David Petraeus scandal broke
Dr. Scott Broadwell, 43, a radiologist, works at a hospital in the southern city and he and his wife “love to do Crossfit, run, ski and surf together”, according to a biography of Paula Broadwell published by the University of Denver,
In January, while promoting her now fated biography of David Petraeus, Paula Broadwell told the Charlotte Observer that she met Scott in Germany and described them both as “adventure junkies”.
At an alumni event for the University of Denver in October, Paula Broadwell said it was “very difficult to start a family” when the two of them were on active duty.
“We had decided before we got married that every other move would be the other person’s choice, since we are both very career-oriented,” said Paula Broadwell at the event, according to the Daily Beast.
“And he chose Colorado, he chose Denver.”
They moved into their $800,000 two-story brick home in Charlotte’s Dilworth suburb in 2009 and Scott Broadwell became an employee of Charlotte Radiology at the same time.
In the January interview with the Charlotte Observer Paula Broadwell said that when she was abroad with David Petraeus in Afghanistan, Scott and her mother took care of their two sons.
Scott Broadwell and his wife have also been involved in a number of groups that work to benefit veterans of the armed forces.
Since the affair broke, their home has been empty and visible on the driveway is power-washed writing, which reads in a flourishing font: “Dad loves Mom.”
Paula Broadwell’s affair with David Petraeus was exposed after she sent a series of messages to Florida socialite Jill Kelly, apparently warning her off her lover.
Jill Kelley, the Florida housewife at the centre of the David Petraeus scandal, was given access to the White House on three separate occasion thanks to a lawyer friend who works for the administration, according to recent reports.
Jill Kelley and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, had two “courtesy” meals in the mess at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as guests of a mid-level aide in September and October, a White House official said.
The socialite and her family also received a tour of the presidential residence on the weekend before the November 6 election.
Jill Kelley met the aid, an attorney, through her work with MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, where she also rubbed shoulders with the military’s top brass, including General David Petraeus.
David Petraeus’ biographer-turned-mistress Paula Broadwell also reportedly visited the White House before her illicit affair with Petraeus was made public following an FBI investigation launched with Kelley’s help.
Neither woman met with President Barack Obama during their visits, a White House official said.
Paula Broadwell, who was writing a book about David Petraeus and eventually became his paramour, attended meetings in June 2009 and June 2011 on Afghanistan-Pakistan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is located in the White House complex, the official said.
The White House visits by Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley illustrate the wide-ranging access both women enjoyed because of their ties with David Petraeus, General John Allen and others in the close-knit military community.
Jill Kelley and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, had two courtesy meals at the White House as guests of a mid-level aide in September and October
The White House official discussed their visits on condition of anonymity because the visitors logs being cited have yet to be made public.
Tampa Bay Timesreported that on November 4, two days before the presidential election and less than a week before David Petraeus tendered his resignation after acknowledging his affair with Paula Broadwell, Jill Kelley, her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, their children and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, went on a tour of the White House.
On October 24, Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam had lunch in the White House with a staffer, who also had breakfast with the Kelleys on September 28.
Jill Kelley was an Honorary Consul to South Korea, which is why she said she visited the White House in September.
The attorney who ushered Jill Kelley and her family through the doors of America’s most famous residence has not been identified by the White House, saying that his name will be made public once the visitor logs are released.
However, an official said the aid had gotten to know Jill Kelley through connections to MacDill.
The man worked as a civilian lawyer in Afghanistan and got to form relationships with military personnel, who invited him to MacDill where he met Jill Kelley. He now works as a lawyer in the White House.
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.
The CIA has opened an investigation into the conduct of its former director David Petraeus, who resigned last week citing an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.
A CIA spokesman says the inquiry by the agency’s inspector general would see if there are any lessons to be learned.
Paula Broadwell, 40, was found to have classified information, but both she and General David Petraeus deny it came from him.
David Petraeus will testify on Friday on Capitol Hill about September’s deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya.
The CIA said in a statement on Thursday: “At the CIA we are constantly reviewing our performance. If there are lessons to be learned from this case we’ll use them to improve.
“But we’re not getting ahead of ourselves; an investigation is exploratory and doesn’t presuppose any particular outcome.”
In his first interview since resigning, David Petraeus told CNN on Thursday he had not given any classified information to his former lover.
He also said he quit because of the affair, not the assault two months ago on the consulate in Benghazi that left four Americans dead.
The CIA has opened an investigation into the conduct of its former director David Petraeus, who resigned last week citing an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell
David Petraeus will be questioned by lawmakers behind closed doors on Friday about that attack, which has been the focus of Republican claims that the Obama administration misled the American people.
Meanwhile, intelligence officials continued on Thursday to defend their handling of the investigation into David Petraeus’ affair.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and acting CIA Director Michael Morell appeared before the House intelligence committee.
Dutch Ruppersberger, the panel’s top Democrat, said after the hearing that he was satisfied with the FBI’s investigation.
He said the agency was right not to have notified political leaders sooner, because of rules set up post-Watergate to prevent meddling in criminal investigations.
But another committee member, Representative Adam Schiff, also a Democrat, said “there’s a lot of information we need … with respect to the facts about the allegations against General Petraeus”.
At a press conference in New Orleans, US Attorney General Eric Holder was also asked why the justice department did not inform the White House or lawmakers earlier about the investigation.
Eric Holder said: “As we went through the investigation and looked at the facts and tried to examine them as they developed, we felt very secure in the knowledge that a national security threat did not exist.”
The scandal was discovered when FBI officials looked into harassing emails, allegedly from Paula Broadwell, that were sent to a Florida socialite who is a family friend of the Petraeuses.
The inquiry has also ensnared the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen.
John Allen is under investigation for sending what officials describe as “flirtatious” emails to the Tampa hostess, Jill Kelley.
Adultery is illegal under military law, but General John Allen denies wrongdoing.
The questions and the allegations keep coming in the Petraeus scandal that has blazed for days, reducing the general’s position to dust and licking at the doors of a growing cast of characters.
But the one thing that seemed fireproof was the fact of Paula Broadwell’s academic prowess: until now.
Because Paula Broadwell did not complete that PhD. She did not fulfill the demanding requirements of the public policy programme that facilitated her meeting with David Petraeus. It is a detail she has repeatedly glided over, allowing the truth to slip unnoticed to the floor in each book promoting interview and talk.
Speaking to theBoston Globe, one of Paula Broadwell’s former professors at Harvard recalled her presence at the University: “It was very much, <<I’m here and you’re going to know I’m here>>. She was not someone you would think of as a critical thinker.”
It may not have stretched as far as a convincing answer to the question: “How did she get so close?”
So close that she took classified military documents home; so close that she felt entitled to warn socialite Jill Kelley off the man she clearly considered her own. Nothing quite explained all that.
But her much vaunted intellectual prowess did at least go some way towards bridging that troubling, yawning gap between Paula Broadwell the unknown and Paula Broadwell the soldier- scholar, biographer to David Petraeus. Well it doesn’t anymore.
The details of her shortcomings are unclear but Kennedy School faculty and enrollment records show that Paula Broadwell did not continue at Harvard after two years.
The withering conclusion of one unnamed academic was: “I don’t remember her as a student. I remember her as a personality.”
Paula Broadwell didn’t complete PhD that led to David Petraeus biography
Presumably it was that personality that relieved David Petraeus of his critical faculties when he invited Paula Broadwell well and truly into his camp.
Paula Broadwell left Harvard with a lesser diploma in 2008, a master of public administration, after one additional semester.
According to her former professor news that she was to become David Petraeus’s biographer shocked many in the national security faculty at Harvard because, “she just didn’t have the background – the academic background, the national security background, or the writing background”.
On the face of it the extent to which David Petraeus let his guard down is breathtaking. Certainly it is an act he rues today. He has told his friend Colonel Peter Mansoor that he considers his behavior, “morally reprehensible”, though interestingly could not resist a flick of self-defence, pointing out that he had “violated no laws”.
But then Paula Broadwell is nothing if not convincing when it comes to outlining her own credentials and, given the glowing portrait of ‘strategic leadership’ she penned as David Petraeus’s biography, nothing if not flattering.
In one television interview she recalled approaching General David Petraeus and asking him to be a case-study for her dissertation. She wanted to show, “What Petraeus’s role was in forcing the military to adapt to win the wars we were in.”
And while Paula Broadwell stroked her subject’s ego with one hand she shored up her own credibility with the other; part Mata Hari, part blue-stocking.
Key to that credibility, as well as her doctorate dissertation turned book, were the two Master of Arts degrees she laid claim to on professional networking site, LinkedIn.
Paula Broadwell listed both from the University of Denver, one in international security and one in international negotiations.
In fact as the Boston Globe reveals the university registrar only lists her as having been awarded one degree in international security in 2006. It didn’t stop the University inviting Paula Broadwell back to address their alumni society in 2012.
But the recent revelations did see a wobble of sorts when, earlier this week, the angst-ridden administration removed the video of her speech which had been proudly posted on line. It has since been reinstated.
As far as a second Harvard professor is concerned Paula Broadwell was, “a lot of talk but not a lot of follow-through”. David Petraeus may beg to differ.
Certainly Paula Broadwell never tired of talking herself – or her subject – up. When it came to promoting her book, for Paula Broadwell, establishing her own academic, military and security credentials came second only to establishing whether General David Petraeus was, as Jon Steward put it, “awesome or incredibly awesome”.
Paula Broadwell dropped academic qualifications and security clearance the way a socialite might pepper her conversation with boasts of parties attended and “bffs” made. According to Paula Broadwell, being embedded in Afghanistan with David Petraeus was not the huge leap many imagined because, she explained: “We had previously met through academia.”
She herself was a graduate of West Point and a specialist in counter-terrorism with black ops experience, high security clearance, “and then some”.
General David Petraeus has spoken out for the first time since his affair with Paula Broadwell became public, forcing him to resign – and revealed he is determined to make his marriage work.
Breaking his silence almost a week after he dramatically stepped down, David Petraeus also revealed he has not spoken to his mistress, Paula Broadwell, since the scandal emerged and denied he had ever given her classified military documents.
He maintained that his shock resignation on Friday had nothing to do with hearings about the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which he was due to testify at this week.
Instead, David Petraeus, speaking with HLN reporter Kyra Phillips, said he stepped down as he was deeply remorseful about the affair and the only honorable thing left to do was to admit his failings.
And, relaying her conversations with David Petraeus toHLN on Thursday, Kyra Phillips said he was now focusing on repairing the damage inflicted on his family, including his two adult children, Anne and Stephen.
He admitted to her that he had “screwed up terribly” and that he “felt fortunate to have a wife who is far better than he deserves”, Kyra Phillips said.
“He knows he made a big mistake,” she said.
“He does want to move forward making things work with his family. He doesn’t want to throw 37 years out the window with his wife.”
“This woman is strong,” she added of Holly Petraeus.
“She knows what she wants. She’s obviously, according to people that know her well, not happy about this – very, very upset about this.
“I do not know if she’s committed to working this out with Petraeus… But I do know that Dave Petraeus does not want to throw 37 years away and would really like to make this work and make things right with his family.”
Speaking with HLN reporter Kyra Phillips, David Petraeus said he stepped down as he was deeply remorseful about the affair with Paula Broadwell and the only honorable thing left to do was to admit his failings
David Petraeus, 60, revealed very little about his ten-month affair with Paula Broadwell, which ended in July, but said they had not spoken since Friday.
“They have not talked since this story broke,” Kyra Phillips said.
“They talked a couple of times when he ended this relationship which was a couple [of] months ago. But they have not talked since the story broke.”
These previous conversations have been confirmed by sources who saw David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell chatting at an intelligence event in Washington on October 27, weeks after the start of the FBI probe.
David Petraeus and his mistress Paula Broadwell were seen chatting together at a high-profile intelligence event weeks after they learned the FBI had launched an investigation into their affair, it has been claimed.
Their brazen appearances at the annual Office of Strategic Services Dinner in Washington D.C. on October 27 came just two weeks before David Petraeus’ dramatic resignation last Friday.
A photograph shows Paula Broadwell at the event, according to NBC sources, and guests noted she was confident – rather than a woman under investigation for potential national security breaches.
“It’s mind-boggling that she could be so reckless as to show up at high-profile events like this, shortly after learning the FBI was investigating their affair,” one former U.S. intelligence official told NBC.
The probe was launched in May after Paula Broadwell sent anonymous threatening emails to Florida military socialite and perceived love rival Jill Kelley, telling her to “back off” from David Petraeus.
The catty emails were traced back to Paula Broadwell and, in the process of the investigation, agents also uncovered messages revealing the affair between the biographer and David Petraeus.
A friend claims the affair ended in July and agents interviewed Paula Broadwell during the week of October 14 and David Petraeus the week of October 21, CNN reported – just days before the Washington event.
Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus did not sit together, but were seen speaking, sources told NBC.
Some attendees claimed they attended the event together, conservative weekly Human Events reported, but others disputed this.
It is the last known meeting of the pair who seemed very much at ease with each other, despite claiming their affair had ended months prior.
David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell were seen chatting together at a high-profile intelligence event after they learned the FBI had launched an investigation into their affair
Paula Broadwell, a married mother of two who first met David Petraeus as he spoke at Harvard University in 2006, appeared confident while speaking with guests, Fox News reported.
“She was elated, beaming that night,” the source said.
“She was having her picture taken with guests. She would disappear for a few minutes and then return, very much enjoying the attention.”
They added that Paula Broadwell spoke openly about David Petraeus and had personal insights and opinions about him.
“She said he was unsure of himself sometimes,” they said.
David Petraeus, who is also married with two children, was described as being in a “great mood” and gave a speech honoring a CIA director predecessor and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
After the event, one of the most high-profile events within the intelligence community, the FBI interviewed Paula Broadwell for a second time.
On November 6 – Election Day – the FBI told Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the probe during a phone call. He then spoke with David Petraeus and advised him to resign.
On November 8, President Barack Obama was told about the 10-month affair and Petraeus visited him at the White House to hand in his resignation.
Barack Obama accepted David Petraeus’ resignation and he stepped down as the head of the CIA on November 9.
The scandal later dragged in another general, the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, after the FBI investigated Jill Kelley’s emails from Paula Broadwell.
During the probe, they reportedly uncovered 20,000 to 30,000 pages of email correspondence between General John Allen and Jill Kelley, an unpaid social liaison who throws parties for military in Tampa, Florida.
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