The Florida woman who received threatening emails regarding newly-resigned CIA Director David Petraeus — some of which were from the mistress of Petraeus — and reported them to the FBI, was named on Sunday.
A senior military official told the Associated Press that Jill Kelley — a 37 year-old woman from Tampa, Florida who was “an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa” and friends with Petraeus’s wife — received e-mails that were so threatening that she reported them to the FBI.
The emails, which told Kelley to “stay away” from Petraeus, allegedly came from Petraeus paramour Paula Broadwell, who may have been jealous after suspecting Petraeus may have been having an affair with Kelley as well.
“We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family’s privacy and want the same for us and our three children,” Kelley said in a statement.
On Sunday evening, though, sources closes to the Petraeus family told Fox News that Kelley and her sister spent holidays with the Petraeus family, but she was not having an affair with Petraeus.
Further, these sources also said the threatening e-mail that prompted Kelley to go to the FBI may not have come from Broadwell, the Petraeus biographer.
The FBI probe into the emails led to the discovery of emails between Petraeus and Broadwell that discussed things such as having “sex under a desk.”
Petraeus resigned on Friday and wrote to his staff that after being married for over 37 years, he “showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.”
“Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,” he wrote. “The president graciously accepted my resignation.
According to the Associated Press, Broadwell “has not responded to multiple emails and phone messages” and actually planned to “celebrate her 40th birthday party in Washington this weekend, with many reporters invited,” but her husband “emailed guests to cancel the event late Friday.”
CIA officers had long expressed their concern that Petraeus was giving Broadwell an unprecedented level of access. Broadwell posted photos to her Facebook account from Afghanistan that intelligence sources thought could tip off enemies to sensitive information. In addition, Broadwell, according to the AP, “posted a photograph on her Facebook page of Petraeus with actress Angelina Jolie, taken in his 7th floor office where only the official CIA photographer is permitted to take photos.”
Petraeus gave Broadwell the photo hours after it was taken.
Petraeus was slated to testify before Congress this week about the terrorist attacks at the U.S. consulate in Libya that led to the murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Petraeus’s resignation does not preclude him from testifying before Congress, and Republicans in Congress — such as Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) — have indicated that Petraeus would eventually testify before Congress if he does not this week.
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