CIA director David Petraeus’s biographer sent harassing emails to another woman who she believed threatened her affair with him, it was reported today.
The e-mails from Petraeus’s paramour, reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell, so frightened their recipient that she contacted the FBI seeking protection, several sources told the Washington Post.
The allegedly threatened woman’s identity and relationship to Petraeus were not disclosed by the officials, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity.
The bureau eventually traced the electronic threats back to Broadwell, a married mother of two who wrote a flattering biography of Petraeus, 60, titled, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.”
During the investigation, the FBI also uncovered a series of steamy emails between the duo — including a graphic reference to “sex under a desk,” according to Newsmax.
Broadwell is reported to have referred to Petraeus by the nickname “Peaches.”
They met in the spring of 2006, when Petraeus was invited to give a talk about counterinsurgency at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where Broadwell was a graduate student.
They carried on the steamy relationship during Petraeus’ days leading troops in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011, until she broke it off in September 2011 when he was sworn in as CIA director, said sources.
Despite the breakup, Petraeus continued to pursue Broadwell with numerous e-mails, report say.
The revelation sent Petraeus’ military and intelligence career crashing down. On Friday, when President Obama accepted the former general’s resignation after 14 months as the head of the CIA.