WASHINGTON — The FBI’s handling of the investigation that forced CIA Director David Petraeus to resign came under new scrutiny Wednesday as FBI Director Robert Mueller faced questions on Capitol Hill, and President Barack Obama alluded to lingering questions about the course of the probe.
Mueller and FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce appeared in closed session Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, facing questions for the first time from lawmakers on key points in the Petraeus case. And in his first public comments on the controversy, Obama said he has seen no evidence that the scandal exposed classified information that might harm national security.
Petraeus, a retired four-star general, resigned as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Both are married.
Obama’s comments coincided with new disclosures that Broadwell had classified material and that the FBI’s initial concern centered on how an anonymous sender of menacing e-mails knew so much about the official schedules of the CIA director and the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan. The anonymous e-mails eventually were traced to Broadwell.
The messages were sent to Allen and Jill Kelley, a Florida socialite who cultivated close ties to Petraeus, Allen and other high-ranking military officers when they served at the headquarters for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.
Allen is under investigation by the Defense Department inspector general over the contents of hundreds of e-mails between him and Kelley. He has said through associates that he did not have a physical relationship with Kelley or commit any wrongdoing.
The first message Allen received came in May from a sender using the alias “KelleyPatrol,” according to a person close to Kelley. The message made clear the sender knew Allen would likely see Kelley at an upcoming event at the residence of an ambassador in Washington and that he should stay away from her, according to the person.
Subsequent messages, also anonymous, were sent to Kelley and her husband, Scott.
“Clearly the person knew the comings and goings of General Allen and CIA Director Petraeus,” the person said. “There was concern that someone was stalking them.”
In June, Kelley called an FBI agent she had met and told him about the e-mails. He took copies to the bureau’s Tampa office.
The agent was identified Wednesday as Frederick Humphries, 47, who knew Kelley from a visit to her house on an unrelated case years earlier, according to law enforcement officials. Humphries was not assigned to the harassment case, but he later became frustrated over what he thought was a lagging investigation into a possible national security breach.
In late October, Humphries raised his concerns with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Cantor’s chief of staff telephoned the FBI director’s chief of staff. After Cantor’s call, the Justice Department disclosed the investigation to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence on Nov. 6. Clapper told the White House the next day.
