14 DAY TRIAL // Jill Kelley, social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base, is the woman who outed ex-CIA director David H. Petraeus' relationship with biographer Paula Broadwell, prompting his resignation on Friday.
The affair, as well as Petraeus's career, came to an end as unpaid social liaison for the MacDill Air Force Base Kelley, a family friend of the general's, complained about receiving harassing emails from a jealous Broadwell, 40, who identified 37-year-old Kelley as a threat to her relationship.
As we wrote on Saturday, November 10, the FBI started investigating Broadwell's emails, and their inquiry led to them stumbling upon messages detailing a romantic involvement. It became obvious that the pair had been carrying on an extramarital affair, with both being married, with children.
Paula Broadwell met David Petraeus at a Harvard University function, in 2006, according to the Telegraph. She decided to write her doctoral thesis about his lifetime achievements and leadership style, and her work soon turned into a biographic novel.
In 2010, she was invited along in Afghanistan, but before that, she was given access to the general at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, from 2008 to 2010, LA Times reports.
"She was always in Tampa, sometimes for weeks at a time, and it was always explained that she was writing a book about him," an unidentified officer says.
"She stayed in the distinguished visitor residences on base, much like the other traveling gang of think-tankers. [...] She did travel with him a bit too," an official serving in Kabul describes.
Kelley denied rumors of herself being involved with Petraeus, stating the two are just close friends. She was stationed in Tampa, Florida, as was the general, and their families met on several social occasions.
As soon as news of his affair was out, the general's resignation was asked for by National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper, on Tuesday, November 6. By Friday, the White House had been alerted, and re-elected President Obama accepted his resignation.