Holder Knew Of Petraeus Investigation For Months – But Did He Tell Anyone?

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eric-holderAttorney General Eric Holder was notified in late summer that then-CIA Director David Petraeus’ name had surfaced in the FBI probe that ultimately uncovered Petraeus’ scandal, raising questions about whether Holder would have — or should have — informed President Obama.

According to the administration’s version of events, the president did not find out about the situation until last Thursday. At the time that Holder was notified, months earlier, many details were still unknown. Petraeus himself was not interviewed until the fall. And according to one source, it is long-standing FBI policy for the FBI not to brief Congress or the White House in the middle of a criminal probe that does not involve a security threat.

However, several lawmakers and other officials say the mere fact that Petraeus was flagged in an investigation should have been reason enough to kick the issue up from the Justice Department to the White House.

“He was the director of the CIA, not Fish & Wildlife. The implications are massive,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FoxNews.com in an email. Chaffetz said the heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees should have been looped in. “Notification should have also gone to the president — immediately,” Chaffetz said.

Top congressional lawmakers, including the leaders of key committees, have raised concerns that they weren’t notified earlier.

But John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the George W. Bush administration, said the bigger question surrounds whether the White House was notified.

“The idea that the White House didn’t learn of this potential problem until Election Day, I just find incomprehensible. Did the attorney general sit on this information for two months?” he asked. Bolton said it raises the question “of whether the information was suppressed.”

The law states that intelligence officials “shall” notify the congressional intelligence committees of “all intelligence activities.” It could be argued that this didn’t rise to such a level, technically.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a 2007 memo from then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Justice employees were not supposed to tell the White House or Congress about pending criminal investigations.

But Tom Dupree, former deputy assistant attorney general under George W. Bush, suggested the unique nature of this situation should have been a flag to notify at least Congress — and perhaps the White House.

“The attorney general — really it’s his obligation to notify the relative congressional committees,” Dupree told Fox News. “And in some cases, the attorney general might want to notify the White House or loop in the White House so the White House is not caught off guard by this disclosure. But at the end of the day, something almost certainly would get elevated to the attorney general.”

According to a senior administration official, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper first informed the White House about the situation last Wednesday. From there, Petraeus on Thursday morning called National Security Adviser Tom Donilon to request a meeting with Obama, who was briefed on the situation by staff later that day before taking the meeting in the afternoon.

Petraeus offered his resignation, and Obama accepted on Friday.

Read more: FOX NEWS

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


7 COMMENTS

  1. This is an ongoing investigation. There is still no confirmation about when the scandal began. If it began while he was still in the military, he’s going to do time in a military prison, but they haven’t finished collecting evidence yet.

    If this had been revealed before the election it would have been campaign fodder, and they would not have been able to continue the investigation properly.

    And believe me, the US military does not llke washing its dirty linen in public. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some input from the military about when to make this public, while the CIA continued to monitor Mr. Petraeus’ activities.

  2. To the outside world, this is not big news. And, since we know that, why is it being trumpeted now, months after it was indeed known to the DJ, while Obama plays golf, runs away to the Far East and has everybody dodging and lying to keep BENGAZI from being the 800pound elephant in the Oval Office.
    People were being murdered while the “Situation Room” and the Liar-in-Chief watched and refused to allow our American forces to protect our American staff! The immorality of Petraeus is usually covered up in the higher echelons (unfortunately) but the outright murder of our American envoy and staff is being lied about to the American public for the political careers of Obama, H. Clinton and all the other rascals.
    We voted in total ignorance that an accessory to murder was in the White House.From a Jewish point of view, not much difference, but from American voters’ point of view, it should have mattered.

  3. Hey, guys – check the latest news. This is ongoing, spreading, and will probably end up with Petraeus, at least, being sent off to military prison. There were probably leaks of classified information, and who knows what else. Let the FBI get on with its work. We all need to know what actually happened.

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