Women linked to Petraeus scandal made White House visits

David Petraeus AP file photo

WASHINGTON—Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley, the two women embroiled in the scandal that brought down CIA chief David Petraeus, visited the White House several times since 2009, a US official told AFP Friday.

Broadwell, Petraeus’ biographer and former mistress, attended meetings on Afghanistan and Pakistan held at the White House compound—at the Eisenhower building next to the presidential residence, said the official on condition of anonymity.

The first meeting was held in June 2009 with a member of the government team charged with handling Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.

The second, two years later, was a briefing with around 20 other people, the same source said.

Petraeus, a retired four-star general and America’s most celebrated military leader in a generation, resigned from the top CIA job last week after an unrelated FBI probe exposed his months-long extramarital affair with Broadwell.

Another four-star general, John Allen, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, has also been linked to the scandal. He is under investigation by the Pentagon for hundreds of emails he wrote to Kelley, some of them reportedly “flirtatious.”

Allen denies any sexual liaison with Kelley.

Her complaint over threatening emails sparked the FBI probe that eventually uncovered Petraeus’ adulterous relationship.

Kelley has also been to the White House in recent months, the official told AFP: “Once for a tour with her family and children, and twice for courtesy meals at the White House mess with her sister and a White House staffer who met the Kelley family while visiting MacDill Air Force Base” near Tampa, Florida, where Kelley lives.