Thursday, November 15, 2012

I expect a prosecution of Paula Broadwell

Hmmm:
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.
If Petraeus gave them to her, then he could be prosecuted (but likely wouldn't be - as former DCI he presumably has too much dirt on too many Washington bigwigs).  He says he didn't give them to her.

Interestingly, I'm not sure that it's a crime to take classified documents from a government building (since everything seems to be a crime, it could very well be).  But here's the kicker (from the article):
Broadwell, an Army counterintelligence reservist and Petraeus’ biographer, also has a high level security clearance.
And this is where Mrs. Broadwell stands a very good chance of vacationing at Club Fed.  I doubt that I'm giving anything away when I say that when you get a Top Secret clearance you are briefed in no uncertain terms about what will happen to you if you screw around with classified documents.  The words "felony" and "prison" are liberally scattered throughout the briefing.

Mrs. Broadwell may or may not be guilty, and may or may not be charged with a crime.  But we know that she's an idiot for getting herself in this situation.

11 comments:

Dave H said...

I'm surprised Petraeus didn't order a hit on her while he was still the DCI. Isn't that how they take care of leaks in the movies?

agirlandhergun said...

And this http://video.foxnews.com/v/1971593240001/

Do any of these people keep their clothes on?

R.K. Brumbelow said...

I love the use of the term raid: "The FBI raided her North Carolina home late Monday in a pre-arranged meeting where they carried out boxes of documents, computers and evidence"

This is less of a "Raid" than when I get hungry for a sammich at 3AM and "Raid" my fridge... after all my fridge does not know what night this month i may need to satisfy the noms.

instinct said...

But if you are growing a pot plant in your basement you can expect a full tactical assault and probably a dead dog or two.

The whole thing is pathetic

Old NFO said...

All all this 'may' be smoke and mirrors to cover the illegal access to various emails by the FBI. Just sayin...

J said...

"I'm not sure that it's a crime to take classified documents from a government building."

It's absolutely a crime. I do not know if the classified documents discovered were on her personal computer, a "work" computer, an Army computer or in hard copy. Regardless, without courier orders, proper packaging and proper authorization there is not way she could have legally stored those documents at home.

Chris said...

Anybody stop to think there may be a different end user for this information?

Anonymous said...

I hope she was getting 50 cents a page which was the going rate for selling out th-ree letter agenc-y secrets.

Geodkyt said...

J -- It is only a crime because she has a clearance, unless she was committing espionage.

If Goober, the uncleared dude at MacDonalds, gets handed classified documents by his friend who is saying, "look at this cool stuff!", Goober is NOT going to jail. Unless he tries to eBay them to the highest bidder. . .

Goober's friend, OTOH, is going down.

Windy Wilson said...

IN the world of classified information one does not take work home!
This is the beginning of a most peculiar story, not the least of which peculiarity is that this is the General waaaay back when who was derided as "General Betray-us" because of what I never quite figured out, except he did his job and didn't knuckle under to the Dem Congress.

Geodkyt said...

I'm willing to bet the classified documentation has NOTHING to do with Petraeus, and is 100% from HER work as a Reservist.

She was in counter-intel, and obviously a bit in the camp of "rules? what rules?", given her weird behavior vis a vis hottie #2.

Of course, it could also involve stuff she did not have "Need to Know", but had access to through her work (often times, NTK is far less enforced than clearance level, especially at TS level. . . although SCI stuff at any clearance level is generally better monitored as to NTK). think Bradley Manning and Wikileaks.

For example, her allegations in PUBLIC, concerning supposed Libyan prisoners of the CIA, may well have come from classified documents she accessed and downloaded. All indications are that her relationship with Petraeus was obsessive in the extreme (in a The Wedding Crashers, "But I'll fiiiiind you. . . " kind of way)*, from the first time she met him -- she may have been violating security access rules to find info she could use to protect him from Obama the Bussinator.




* Seriously, the stink of TEH CRAZY is strong on this one. I should know -- without meaning to, I practically made a career of dating TEH CRAZY. {grin}