USA / Politics

Petraeus scandal: Did anything illegal happen? Five questions so far.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has now called into question the private lives and careers of two of the nation’s top national-security officials. The revelations that have come out have exposed a tangle of relationships and questionable actions. Here is an accounting of what is known so far.

By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer

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1. How did David Petraeus, director of the CIA, come under FBI scrutiny in the first place? (+video)

The saga began to unravel with threatening e-mails that were sent to Jill Kelley, a socialite in Tampa, Fla., and a close friend of the Petraeus family. She became alarmed at these anonymous missives telling her to stay away from Mr. Petraeus, a retired four-star general.

So Ms. Kelley contacted a good friend at the FBI, Frederick Humphries, who set the investigation in motion. The agency traced the e-mails back to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus’s biographer. Investigators then found intimate e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Petraeus, who resigned his post at the Central Intelligence Agency on Nov. 9 because of the burgeoning scandal.