There's a Mystery Third Woman in the Petraeus Affair

There's a Mystery Third Woman in the Petraeus Affair

New reports coming out about the affair between former CIA director David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell reveal there was a third woman involved that led the FBI to discover the affair.  

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David Petraeus' resignation from the CIA was announced yesterday after it was revealed he had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell starting sometime around August 2011. Theories started swirling that Broadwell's husband, Scott, emailed New York Times Magazine's Ethicist columnist Chuck Klosterman asking for advice. Previously, the FBI said they'd discovered the affair when they thought someone tried to hack into Petraeus' personal email account. 

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Well, things just got weirder. Officials told the New York Times' Scott Shane and Eric Schmidt FBI officials were investigating a complaint made by an unidentified third person that Broadwell was "harassing" them. The Washington Post's Sari Horowitz and and Greg Miller report the third person was actually a woman who Broadwell thought was a threat to their affair. 

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The unidentified lady was rattled enough by Broadwell's harassing emails that she reported her to the FBI, who then started investigating Broadwell's email accounts. While the FBI were looking through Broadwell's emails for their harassment investigation they discovered risqué communiqués that revealed the affair with Petraeus. "We were stunned," a source told the Times

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From the sounds of things, the mystery lady discovered the affair and Broadwell freaked out. Officials stressed to the Times and the Post that the affair was very much an isolated event within Petraeus' social circle. "People think that because it’s the C.I.A. director, it must involve bigger issues," one source told the Times. "Think of a small circle of people who know each other."