[h=3]By EVAN PEREZ, SIOBHAN GORMAN and DEVLIN BARRETT[/h]A State Department official's complaints about email stalking launched the monthslong criminal inquiry that led to a woman romantically linked to former Gen. David Petraeus and to his abrupt resignation Friday as Central Intelligence Agency chief.
The emails began arriving in Jill Kelley's inbox in May, U.S. officials familiar with the probe said. A State Department political adviser for a U.S. military command in Tampa, Fla., Ms. Kelley told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the emails, which she viewed as harassing, the U.S. officials said.
European Pressphoto AgencyDavid Petraeus with Paula Broadwell in a photo dated July 2011.
That FBI investigation into who sent the emails led over a period of months to Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus's biographer, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, according to the U.S. officials.
FBI agents were pursuing what they thought was a potential cybercrime, or a breach of classified information.
Instead, the trail led to what officials said were sexually explicit emails between two lovers, from an account Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym to establish, and to the destruction of Mr. Petraeus's painstakingly crafted image as a storied Army general.
Mr. Petraeus admitted to an affair in a letter to CIA employees announcing his resignation.
In the aftermath of the investigation, some lawmakers are aiming criticism at the FBI and the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder, who knew about the email link to Mr. Petraeus as far back as late summer. A House Republican leader also learned of the matter in October. Some argue that Mr. Petraeus shouldn't have resigned; others said that the FBI should have formally notified Congress earlier.
The top Senate Democrat on intelligence issues said Sunday she would investigate the FBI's handling of the inquiry, and why the matter wasn't shared earlier with Congress.
"It was like a lightning bolt," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on "Fox News Sunday." "This is something that could have had an effect on national security. I think we should have been told."
That Mr. Petraeus was having an affair wasn't the point of the FBI probe, according to the U.S. officials briefed on the matter.
The FBI investigation began with five to 10 emails beginning around May and received by Ms. Kelley, according to U.S. officials.
The precise nature of Ms. Kelley's relationships with Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus, who ran the Tampa-based U.S. Central Command from 2008 to 2010, weren't known Sunday. Attempts to reach Ms. Broadwell and Ms. Kelley were unsuccessful. Neither had given a public statement as of Sunday evening.
Ms. Kelley didn't know who sent the emails. Some appeared to be accusing her of an inappropriate relationship but didn't name Mr. Petraeus. Agents determined the emails were sent from an account shared by Ms. Broadwell and her husband, who live in North Carolina, the officials said.
But the agents spent weeks piecing together who may have sent them. They used metadata footprints left by the emails to determine what locations they were sent from. They matched the places, including hotels, where Ms. Broadwell was during the times the emails were sent.
FBI agents and federal prosecutors used the information as probable cause to seek a warrant to monitor Ms. Broadwell's email accounts.
They learned that Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus had set up private Gmail accounts to use for their communications, which included explicit details of a sexual nature, according to U.S. officials. But because Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym, agents doing the monitoring didn't immediately uncover that he was the one communicating with Ms. Broadwell.
By late summer, after the monitoring of Ms. Broadwell's emails uncovered the link to Mr. Petraeus, prosecutors and agents alerted senior officials at FBI and the Justice Department, including Mr. Holder, U.S. officials say. The investigators never monitored Mr. Petraeus's email accounts, the officials say.
The emails began arriving in Jill Kelley's inbox in May, U.S. officials familiar with the probe said. A State Department political adviser for a U.S. military command in Tampa, Fla., Ms. Kelley told the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the emails, which she viewed as harassing, the U.S. officials said.
European Pressphoto AgencyDavid Petraeus with Paula Broadwell in a photo dated July 2011.
That FBI investigation into who sent the emails led over a period of months to Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus's biographer, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, according to the U.S. officials.
FBI agents were pursuing what they thought was a potential cybercrime, or a breach of classified information.
Instead, the trail led to what officials said were sexually explicit emails between two lovers, from an account Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym to establish, and to the destruction of Mr. Petraeus's painstakingly crafted image as a storied Army general.
Mr. Petraeus admitted to an affair in a letter to CIA employees announcing his resignation.
In the aftermath of the investigation, some lawmakers are aiming criticism at the FBI and the Obama administration, including Attorney General Eric Holder, who knew about the email link to Mr. Petraeus as far back as late summer. A House Republican leader also learned of the matter in October. Some argue that Mr. Petraeus shouldn't have resigned; others said that the FBI should have formally notified Congress earlier.
The top Senate Democrat on intelligence issues said Sunday she would investigate the FBI's handling of the inquiry, and why the matter wasn't shared earlier with Congress.
"It was like a lightning bolt," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on "Fox News Sunday." "This is something that could have had an effect on national security. I think we should have been told."
That Mr. Petraeus was having an affair wasn't the point of the FBI probe, according to the U.S. officials briefed on the matter.
The FBI investigation began with five to 10 emails beginning around May and received by Ms. Kelley, according to U.S. officials.
The precise nature of Ms. Kelley's relationships with Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus, who ran the Tampa-based U.S. Central Command from 2008 to 2010, weren't known Sunday. Attempts to reach Ms. Broadwell and Ms. Kelley were unsuccessful. Neither had given a public statement as of Sunday evening.
Ms. Kelley didn't know who sent the emails. Some appeared to be accusing her of an inappropriate relationship but didn't name Mr. Petraeus. Agents determined the emails were sent from an account shared by Ms. Broadwell and her husband, who live in North Carolina, the officials said.
But the agents spent weeks piecing together who may have sent them. They used metadata footprints left by the emails to determine what locations they were sent from. They matched the places, including hotels, where Ms. Broadwell was during the times the emails were sent.
FBI agents and federal prosecutors used the information as probable cause to seek a warrant to monitor Ms. Broadwell's email accounts.
They learned that Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus had set up private Gmail accounts to use for their communications, which included explicit details of a sexual nature, according to U.S. officials. But because Mr. Petraeus used a pseudonym, agents doing the monitoring didn't immediately uncover that he was the one communicating with Ms. Broadwell.
By late summer, after the monitoring of Ms. Broadwell's emails uncovered the link to Mr. Petraeus, prosecutors and agents alerted senior officials at FBI and the Justice Department, including Mr. Holder, U.S. officials say. The investigators never monitored Mr. Petraeus's email accounts, the officials say.