WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Army Reserve has at least temporarily revoked a promotion it awarded last year to Paula Broadwell, the biographer whose affair with General David Petraeus led to Petraeus' resignation as Central Intelligence Agency director last year.
George Wright, an Army spokesman, told Reuters that Broadwell had been promoted last August to lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and that orders for that promotion were revoked earlier this month due to an investigation which is "ongoing."
Wright said he could not say what the continuing investigation related to or who was conducting it. But he said if the investigation ultimately is closed without any action against Broadwell, her promotion to lieutenant colonel could be restored retroactive to the date it was originally granted.
Wright said Broadwell remains a major in the Army Reserve, but is not presently on active duty.
Last year, the Glover Park Group, a high-powered Washington, D.C., public relations firm which represents Broadwell, said Broadwell had been informed that the government had closed an investigation into anonymous emails she sent to a Tampa, Florida, socialite, which led to the discovery of Broadwell's extra-marital relationship with Petraeus.
On Thursday, Joel Johnson, a Glover Park representative, said Broadwell's lawyers were aware of a continuing investigation, but that they had not been informed that Broadwell was a "subject" or "target" of such an investigation. Johnson said the lawyers did not know the precise nature of the investigation or who is conducting it.
However, it is known that in the wake of the exposure of Broadwell's relationship with Petraeus and his resignation as CIA director, the FBI, with Broadwell's consent, conducted a search of her residence in Charlotte, N.C.
At the time, law enforcement and national security sources said FBI agents had found a substantial amount of classified information on Broadwell's personal computer. The officials said at the time the documents dated from before August 2011, when Petraeus took up his post at the CIA and the two started their affair. None of the material came from the CIA, the sources said.
As an Army reserve officer involved in military intelligence, Broadwell had a security clearance that allowed her to handle sensitive documents. Broadwell's security clearance was subsequently suspended.
An FBI spokesman could not be reached for comment on whether the Bureau is still investigating Broadwell.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and David Alexander; Editing by Vicki Allen)
