By Hayley Peterson and Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED:00:00 EST, 11 November 2012| UPDATED:20:26 EST, 11 November 2012
David Petreaus took his mistress with him on a government funded trip to Paris after he was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to news reports.
Petraeus made the trip with 40-year-old Paula Broadwell, who has written a fawning biography of him, in July 2011, an unnamed source told Buzzfeed. Petraus was heading to his new job as chief of the CIA at the time.
Sixteen months later, the four-star general has resigned from his post after his affair with Broadwell was uncovered by the FBI.
Perks: David Petreaus took his mistress with him on a government funded trip to Paris after he was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Buzzfeed also reports that Petraeus’s unofficial press agent, Tom Ricks, helped Broadwell score a literary agent, a publisher and a six-figure deal for her biography.
Broadwell isn’t the only biographer of Petraeus’s who has gotten special treatment from him.
His first biographer, former U.S. News and World Reporter Linda Robinson, went to work for Petraeus at U.S. Central Command shortly after publishing her book, ‘Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq.’
Petraeus’s affair with Broadwell was uncovered when the FBI began an investigation after suspecting corruption between the pair.
He issued a statement acknowledging the affair after President Obama accepted his resignation, which was announced by the CIA soon after.
‘After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,’ he said in the statement. ‘Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the president graciously accepted my resignation.’
Former US Army General David Petraeus gives a thumbs-up after presenting his wife Holly with a bouquet of roses in 2011
Broadwell, who spent three years doing research for her book, had extensive access to Petraeus in Afghanistan.
In the biography, Broadwell revealed she first met him during his visit to Harvard in spring 2006 when he was a Commander at Fort Leavenworth.
‘I was among the students invited by the school to meet with the general at a dinner afterward, because of my military background,’ she explained.
‘I introduced myself to then–Lieutenant General Petraeus and told him about my research interests; he gave me his card and offered to put me in touch with other researchers and service members working on the same issues.’
Special access: Broadwell, who spent three years doing research for her book, had extensive access to Petraeus in Afghanistan
As she pursued her PhD in public policy in 2008, she contacted him to ask if she could interview him and they kept in touch via email.
‘A few months into my research, General Petraeus, who was then leading Central Command, invited me to go for a run with him and his team along the Potomac River during one of his visits to Washington,’ she wrote. ‘I figured I could interview him while we ran.’
She explained that, after earning varsity letters in cross-country and indoor and outdoor track, she wanted to test him to see if he could keep up with her as she interviewed him.
Instead it became a test for me,’ she said. ‘As we talked during the run from the Pentagon to the Washington Monument and back, Petraeus progressively increased the pace until the talk turned to heavy breathing and we reached a six-minute-per-mile pace. It was a signature Petraeus move.’
Promoting the book on The Daily Show with John Stewart in January, she insisted that these mile-long runs together were nothing out of the ordinary.
Publicity tour: Broadwell appeared on C-SPAN2 in February to discuss her biography
‘This is a typical mechanism for him to get to know young people,’ she said. ‘He’s done it throughout his life. That was the foundation of our relationship.’
In a radio interview in January, host Don Imus said that the pair must have ‘obviously’ liked each other.
She responded: ‘You know, as I said earlier, he has a number of mentees and that’s one thing that’s different when you compare him to other Senior Commanders.
‘But, yeah, we had a lot of rapport. I think some of that comes from a common ground of having gone to West Point [to the U.S. Military Academy].’
The book’s description explains Broadwell conducted research for three years and was ‘afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates and his longtime friends’. Its website adds Broadwell was embedded in Afghanistan with Petraeus for a year between July 2010 and 2011.
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Categories: Intelligence Gathering, M.I.C.E., Petraeus Compromise, Security
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