One for the road!
Two weeks before CIA chief David Petraeus stepped down, amid disclosure of his extramarital affair, he hobnobbed with military VIPs at a black-tie dinner — where he openly chatted with paramour Paula Broadwell, according to published reports.
NBC News posted pictures of Broadwell, in a revealing, backless dress, chit-chatting with two men before the Office of Strategic Services Society annual awards dinner.
The network quoted an unnamed senior US intelligence official and photographer James Brantley, identifying the obscured man as Petraeus.
While the pictures seem unremarkable at first glance, it’s been reported that Broadwell knew of the FBI probe — having been interviewed by investigators in September — long before these images were snapped on Oct. 27.
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The pictures could also be the last time the two have seen each other since the scandal broke.
“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,” said a senior US intelligence official, who attended the event.
The revelation comes on the same day that the CIA announced that it is opening an “exploratory” investigation into the general conduct of Petraeus.
CIA spokesman Preston Golson says the investigation by the CIA’s inspector general “doesn’t presuppose any particular outcome.”
Petraeus stunned the nation six days ago, announcing his resignation and admitting to an extramarital fling with his biographer Broadwell.
The disgraced spymaster, though, insisted he never passed any state secrets to his mistress, and called his secret love life “something dishonorable,” according to a broadcast report today.
Petraeus spoke to Headline Newsreporter Kyra Phillips and took himself to task for the career-ending affair with Broadwell.
“[Petraeus] had told me he had engaged in something dishonorable. He sought to do the honorable thing in response,” according to Phillips, quoting the retired four-star general and former commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
“[Petraeus] had told me he had engaged in something dishonorable. He sought to do the honorable thing in response,” according to Phillips, quoting the retired four-star general and former Afghanistan commander.
Petraeus also said his stunning resignation had nothing to do with the heat he and the White House have been feeling since terrorists attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Some Congressional Republicans have wondered out loud if Petraeus’ move was designed to dodge testimony about the attack that killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
“He has said this has nothing to do with Benghazi. He wants to testify. He will testify,” Phillips said.
“He has maintained to me all along that this was a personal failing … he has made it very clear that this was an extramarital affair and not over classified information or Benghazi.”
The HLN reporter said she’s known Patraeus for years on the job, and they’ve worked closely on charitable efforts on behalf of military families.
“It’s been really disappointing and shocking,” Phillips said. “This is somebody of great discipline and great leadership and I never ever expected, of all the men and women I know in uniform, this is an individual that I would have never expected this to happen.”
Petraeus told Phillips that he hasn’t spoken to Broadwell since the scandal broke.
Petraeus’ insistence that he never passed secrets to Broadwell could contradict an ABC News report, that investigators found a substantial amount of classified information improperly secured on her personal computer.
The files were discovered on a machine removed from Broadwell’s Charlotte, NC, home as the feds investigated her sordid affair with the military commander whose biography she co-wrote, investigators told ABC News.
Investigators also found documents Broadwell admitted taking from secure government buildings, a source the network, adding the government demanded that they all be returned.
ABC said the FBI and military were going through the material this morning and prosecutors were deciding whether to charge her with a crime.
“That’s why they were pulling so much stuff out of [Broadwell’s] place,” a source said, referring to a search carried out Monday night, three days after Petraeus quit as top spy because of their affair.
The discoveries prompted the FBI to step up its probe of Broadwell, who anonymously sent harassing e-mails to Florida mom Jill Kelley — a married “friend” of the four-star general.
Broadwell’s top-secret stash was revealed shortly after President Obama told a press conference, “I’ve seen no evidence at this point from what I’ve seen that classified information was disclosed in any way that would have had a negative impact on our national security.”
Broadwell, a former intelligence officer, yesterday had her high security clearance suspended by the Army, an official said.
Petraeus is expected to testify tomorrow at a closed congressional hearing about the Sept. 11 killing of US Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.
Meanwhile, the FBI-agent friend of Kelley who jump-started the probe was identified as Frederick Humphries II — a counter-terrorism investigator who previously worked on the case of the “millennium” plot at Los Angeles International Airport.
Kelley — who met Humphries at an FBI Citizens” Academy, a program that shows the public how the agency works — told him she received e-mails earlier this year warning her to stay away from Petraeus.
The ensuing FBI probe uncovered Petraeus’ affair with Broadwell.
Humphries, who was not assigned to the case, notified a Washington state congressman of the probe last month after becoming concerned it was being quashed for political reasons.
Humphries at one point e-mailed a picture of himself bare-chested to Kelley — and is now under investigation by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
The bureau said it is also poring through hundreds of “flirtatious” and “inappropriate” e-mails between Kelley and US Marine Gen. John Allen, who replaced Petraeus as the top US commander in Afghanistan.
He and Petraeus both wrote letters to a judge on behalf of Kelley’s twin sister Natalie Khawam, who was seeking unrestricted visitation with her 4-year-old son and was described by a judge as mentally unstable.
Allen’s appointment as the next commander of NATO forces in Europe is now on hold.
Broadwell has apparently been proud of her access to secret government information, boasting in a July speech at the Aspen Security Conference in Colorado that she was a military reservist “with a top secret” sensitive compartmented information clearance.
She referred to Petraeus as “quite a physical specimen,” during an interview at the conference.
In another development, Petraeus has told his former spokesman, retired Army Col. Steven Boylan, that Broadwell is the only mistress he ever had, according to the National Journal.
Boylan said the affair began in November 2011 — two months after he became director of central intelligence — and ended “four, 4 1/2 months ago.”
Asked yesterday about the FBI waiting months to alert him to the affair, Obama said: “I am withholding judgment with respect to how the entire process surrounding Gen. Petraeus came up. We don’t have all the information yet.”
The president became animated when asked about a threat by top Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham to block his possible secretary of state nominee, US Ambassador Susan Rice, over claims she initially misled Congress about what led to the Benghazi terror attack.
“If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me,” he said.
With Post Wire Services and additional reporting by S.A. Miller and Gerry Shields