FBI seizes secret documents from Paula Broadwells computer
The FBI has seized classified materials from Paula Broadwells home computer this week.
The FBI seized classified materials from Paula Broadwell’s home this week and prosecutors are reportedly trying to determine whether to charge David Petraeus’ former mistress with a crime.
Broadwell, 40, told investigators she ended up with the secret military documents after taking them from a government building, ABC reported. The FBI raided her North Carolina home late Monday in a pre-arranged meeting where they carried out boxes of documents, computers and evidence.
Broadwell has denied she came across the classified materials during the course of her relationship with Petraeus, who resigned last Friday after just 14 months as head of the CIA. Citing “poor judgment,” Petraeus admitted to the affair -- apparently while he served as head of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The position, like that at the CIA, afforded him top secret security clearance.
An extramarital relationship is a breach of top secret security requirements.
President Obama said Wednesday he has seen no evidence the affair has harmed national security.
Broadwell, an Army counterintelligence reservist and Petraeus’ biographer, also has a high level security clearance. But the documents found in her possession, “marks a renewed focus by investigators” on how she obtained the materials and if national security might have been compromised, The Washington Post reported.
Senior FBI officials are expected to brief the House and Senate Intelligence Committees this week on the Petraeus investigation.
Agents will also determine whether charges are warranted, ABC reported. Broadwell might also face disciplinary action or no punishment at all if investigators determine no impropriety occurred.
