The "honorable" David Petraeus "hoped the affair would stay secret and he could keep his job as CIA director". Turns out he was full of shit and would still be Director today had it not been for Cantor.
Here's how it played out:
1) Paula Broadwell got jealous of a Petraeus family friend named Jill Kelley and began sending anonymous threatening emails to her.
In Tampa, Kelley began receiving a series of what she described to a friend as bizarre e-mails from an anonymous account. They did not specifically cite Kelley’s connection to Petraeus but warned that her advances toward him would have to stop or she would be exposed.
2) Kelley then contacts an FBI agent friend to investigate.
Kelley was alarmed enough by the e-mails that in June she told a friend who worked as an FBI agent in Tampa about them. The agent took her concerns to the bureau, where investigators traced the messages to Broadwell.
In examining her e-mail account, investigators found messages from Petraeus of a highly personal nature. The FBI suspected the communications were being sent by someone who had hacked into the CIA director’s personal account.
There was no breach of national security but what fueled the suspicion was this:
The mistake apparently came in part from steps Petraeus and Broadwell took to conceal their relationship. According to the Associated Press, instead of sending e-mails to each other’s accounts, the two composed the messages and then left them in a “draft” folder where they could be accessed with a shared user name and password. The method, often used by terrorists, makes it harder to trace e-mail traffic.
3) The FBI briefs Kelley, Kelley contacts Petraeus, Petraeus ends affair with Broadwell.
The FBI informed Kelley that Broadwell was the sender and Kelley said she did not know her, according to a person close to Kelley.
At some point this summer, Kelley told Petraeus about the e-mails and named Broadwell as the person who had sent them. Apparently in response, the CIA director sent e-mails to Broadwell telling her to stop the harassment, two law enforcement officials said.
4) The FBI briefs the DOJ.
In late summer, the FBI informed senior Justice Department officials about the case. A department spokeswoman, Tracy Schmaler, declined to say when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was informed.
After reviewing the investigation, federal prosecutors decided there was no evidence that warranted charges against Broadwell or Petraeus.
5) Both Broadwell and Petreaus are interviewed by the FBI around the end of Oct.
When confronted by FBI agents about the e-mails, Broadwell, 40, acknowledged the affair and turned over her computer. Petraeus, 60, also acknowledged the relationship in his interview with the FBI.
6) At this point, there are no criminal charges, the Director of National Intelligence Clapper was (apparently) in the dark, nothing needed to be made public, it all could've ended.
What remains unclear is why, after it was decided that criminal charges would not be filed, the FBI informed Clapper about the investigation. Another question is why the notification was made on Election Day about a case the Justice Department had declined to pursue weeks earlier.
7) And then Cantor enters the picture.
At some point during the summer, the Tampa FBI agent whom Kelley had first approached for help was taken off the investigation. Frustrated and concerned that an inquiry into what he thought may be a possible national security breach had not progressed, he got in touch with the office of Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.). Reichert passed the information on to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
“I was contacted by an F.B.I. employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain Director Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security,” Cantor said in a statement.
Cantor contacted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III on Oct. 31, and a week later Clapper told Petraeus he needed to resign.
So Cantor's formal request, unknowingly, exposed Petreaus.
“I don’t know if it would have taken this course without Cantor,” a person close to the inquiry said.
Update: First Rec List diary, I beg for your forgiveness.