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ISAF via Reuters file
Gen. David Petraeus shakes hands with author Paula Broadwell in this International Security Assistance Force handout photo originally posted on July 13, 2011.
The federal government has formally notified Paula Broadwell's lawyers that she will not be charged with cyberstalking in connection with the sex scandal that led to the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director.
"The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida has decided not to pursue a federal case regarding the alleged acts of 'cyber-stalking' involving Paula Broadwell," a spokesman for the office said Tuesday in a written statement.
Petraeus, a highly decorated four-star general, resigned his CIA post on Nov. 9 after acknowledging an extramarital affair. Government and law enforcement officials have told NBC News that the 60-year-old former commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and coalition forces in Iraq was involved with Broadwell, 37, his biographer.
Petraeus’ extramarital affair was exposed after Tampa socialite Jill Kelley went to an FBI agent to complain about anonymous harassing emails she was receiving warning her to stay away from Petraeus.
Investigators determined the emails came from Broadwell and also uncovered evidence that she had an affair with Petraeus, government and law enforcement officials have told NBC News.
The decision not to prosecute was made "after applying relevant case law to the particular facts of this case," the U.S. Attorney's Office statement said.
"The decision on whether to bring a prosecution is always a serious matter, and one that should never be undertaken without the most thoughtful deliberation. As federal prosecutors, we are guided in the discharge of our responsibilities by considerations of fairness and justice. The prosecution of a case is undertaken only after the most careful review and analysis of the evidence and applicable law," the statement said.
The public statement was issued Tuesday after Broadwell’s lawyers disclosed that they had received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa indicating that she would not be prosecuted for cyberstalking.
“We are pleased with the decision, and are pleased with the professionalism of the Tampa United States Attorney’s Office, particularly Assistant United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow,” said one of Broadwell’s lawyers, Robert Muse of Washington.
The letter to Muse, dated Dec. 14, read in part, “We believe it is appropriate to advise your client that our office has determined that no federal charges will be broad in the Middle District of Florida relating to alleged acts of cyber-stalking.”
The FBI also investigated whether Broadwell improperly possessed classified information. While the letter to her lawyer mentioned only cyberstalking, it would be unusual for prosecutors to send a letter indicating that a person was off the hook for one potential charge if it was also considering another. Justice Department officials declined to comment about the documents issue.
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She must have some bombshell info to have gotten out of this scott free.
Of course, she isn't out of it at all. The serious charges were the security charges.
Not that I'd want to commit the sin of discrimination... but it sure seems to me that this Broadwell's treatment is an incident of inverse discrimination.
Petraeus, a brilliant man who has served his country well, is sacrificed on the alter of an extramarital affair going public, and gossiped about and included in a female reporter's book for which she is dying to get publicity.
She too indulged in an extramarital affair of her own and her husband is being ignored, poor guy, while the General's wife is pictured frequently. The evidence indicates that Broadwell was the "aggressor" in making moves on the General.
So the male is accused and humiliated and the female is forgiven?
What happened to the 1960s Equal Opportunity Act from which Feminism became the ideal intended to prove wimmen are entitled equal opportunity to men for jobs and recognition. (I've noticed the qualifying wording of that Act, "Opportunity," is generally dropped when a dyed in the wool Feminist touts her "equality" to the males of humanity.)
Personally I figure I am not "equal" to men, and I give thanks for that. We're not opposite, not dittoed, but blending with compatible traits. Further, through the centuries, women of talent and brains have been recognized in major occupations and rewarded in numbers that would surprise you.
There are too many instances of hiring a female because she is... female, but doesn't have the skills of a man applying for the same job. lol and no, I'm not referring to "sex appeal."
Inverse discrimination is the pits... in any direction.
@SecondSight,
On planet Earth, we call it reverse discrimination, not inverse discrimination. Thanks for visiting.
Yes, she probably does have a dump-truck full of dirt on the upper military and political echelons. She probably wiggled her ass at more than one fool to get where she was at in the military. One of her blouse buttons is undone by "oops" mistake. Poor Betreus looks like a school boy who is out of his league; kinda of like, "This is my first time, what do I do now?" She is even taller than him. It's so damn funny looking at this picture. I guess it's true what they say about a picture, it speaks a thousand words.
I was thinking the same thing.
Can't blame the ole boy, she is quite a good looking MILF.
I agree, she is rather good looking.
randall and edwin, you need your eyes checked.
If you like "fiveheads."
Guys! Really!
Good looking? Great body I suspect...
Average looks...
Randall, Edwin, what picture are you looking at?
I dont understand why the Feds would even consider charges against either of these women. If either of them have any information that they should not have, they got it from Petraeus. If anyone is charged with anything it should be Petreaus.
The consideration wasn't info Broadhead may have intercepted. It was stalking, which Multiple federal and Florida laws define. Surely this woman strongly met the criteria of at least one, despite what the authorities said:
If the tables were reversed and the 'stalking' was done by a man to a woman, I'm suer he'd be sitting under the jail today.
Women just aren't held to the same standards of conduct as men...
So petraeus is all but forgotten, susan rice is under the bus, and hillary falls on her head and can't testify. Seems like the pres. has done a pretty effective job of whitewashing the death's of four Americans.
Can you say conspiracy theorist? Aren't you taking this about 4 steps too far?
Are you watching all the stories after the Newtown travesty that have proven to be patently incorrect (and it's still occurring)? It's no different for the horror of Benghazi.
Isn't it ironic to read an article with Broadwell and professionlism in the same sentence?
Yep. She certainly was/is a "pro".
Come clean on Benghazi dude! That broad, she's not all that! She doesn't have a forehead, she has a fivehead!! lol!
Know some family law attorneys in Montgomery County, PA that should be charged, and prosecuted for cyberstalking and keylogging of other lawyers and their clients. I still have the hard drives and if nothing else will continue talking about it until someone fully appreciates the harm that this does in litigation and to the judicial system - not to mention the lives of the people that they destroy with their antics. Would love to see these scum bags in state or federal prison for their crimes. How about doing a story on this MSN?
I have asked the question again and again, how is a person supposed to mount an effective litigative defense/offense if opposing counsel knows every position they're going to argue, every witness they're going to call, each piece of evidence they're going to rely upon before they're legally entitled to that information because they're illegally monitoring and keystroke logging everything they're doing?
Something really funny though. As I was typing this comment, the word "litigative" was flagged as being misspelled. Because I'm accustomed to Firefox offering alternative words, working in Chrome is a little frustrating because it doesn't offer any suggestions but you can elect to open another window with the Google results of your misspelled word making it relatively easy to pick out the correct spelling. Today for the first time I noticed that there is a spellchecker option of "Ask Google for Suggestions" so I clicked on it to see what this option provides. This is what I found:
"Google Chrome can provide smarter spell-checking by sending what you type in the browser to Google's servers, allowing you to use the same spell-checking technology used by Google search".
I can't help but think that by enabling this option, a keystroke logger wouldn't even be necessary because you'd be sending everything you type to specific servers across the wire.
It is what it is! Who cares anymore?
Money talks and Petraeus and his girlfriend walk. She's still an officer in the reserves and should face UCMJ charges.
I guess if you have sex with the right person you don't have to take responsibility for your actions.
The average taxpayer would be prosecuted for cyberstalking.
No, they would not. She made no threats.
Only implied and otherwise. A threat is a threat is threat.
This is the first I've actually paid attention to the Patraeus story. So, this woman who was sleeping with a high-profile man behind his wife's back thought it would be a good idea to try to scare another woman away from him?
Another episode "Too Big to Fail" and "Too Big to Jail." Unbelievable. Who would have ever thought the country would fall this far, and come so low. And if you thought the shyster criminal banksters were bad, just try . . . just try . . . bringing the Military Industrial Complex to heel from underneath their West Point four-star graduate desks with their West Point graduate biographers. How utterly special. Another feather in the cap of "Duty. Honor. Country." West Point. No wonder we can't win any real wars. Disgraceful. All the way around. Top to bottom.
She ruins his life and gets off scott free. Who said life was fair?
Petreaus ruined his own life by being a scum bag cheater. I find it interesting that you and many others blame a woman for ruining the life of a man. It takes two to tango. Petreaus betrayed his wife and the United States.
damn, and I thought we were done hearing about this bimbo.
wiseone. Which Bimbo, Petreaus or the women involved? Petreaus is nothing but a scumbag cheater. Petreaus betrayed the United States and his wife. Petreaus needs to be written out of our history books.
When will the book be out, (surely she is the writer) and will she and the General share in the proceeds of the movie rights as well ? That's the upside for them! The downside is their spouses having continuous negative thoughts about the 10 months of sex that was discovered ! Takes a while, but divorce will happen !
Do not buy her book for she will use it to write another Bio of herself ,
Ok, I am going to be the one to say it. His wife is a cow. And this smart, good looking woman was interested in him and his life. It was only natural that he was attracted to her. He should have never resigned. It was his private issue and he should have told the blood sucking reporters to fug off. Get out of his life America. Start looking inward. You judgemental idiots need to fix your own house before you destroy an American Hero. All of you would have done the same thing if you were in this situation.
His wife may be as you describe it "a cow". No, she is woman who has been married to this man for many years, coming right out of the West Point Academy. She may better be described as needing a stylist and somehow power up to the trendier styles. She is the mother of his children. She has endured many long empty years of separation, because he was more married to his job than to her.
If love and care and kindness for a man only came dressed in a tall, leggy, size 4 body, with a brain and an almost equally distinguished military career, this world would be a satire and probably is peeling back the layers. It was ok for Pres. Roosevelt, Pres Eisenhower, Pres Kennedy for starters. Then we can go a level of power lower, Mr. Gingrich, Gov. Sanford, the former Gov of New York now, a talk show host, and many more idiots, that were all married.
"Fix your own house before you destroy an American Hero"? What a joke. Mr. American Hero did it all by himself, it is called INFIDELITY. It is one of the Big 10 Commandmants, and it is referred technically as Adultery.
I don;t believe if you were interested in doing anything but demonizing Mrs. Petraeus, who STILL IS Mrs. Petraeus....you sounded pretty macho macho, let the sperm fall where they may, kind of guy, still testosterone bases and still stupid.
Petreaus is no American hero. Petreaus betrayed his wife, his Family and the United States. He is just another scumbag that thinks that the rules do not apply to him. Petreaus is Nothing.
This woman bashing is well....what you men do...it is always the woman's fault. We have been blamed for all of the world's problems from Samson and Delilah on through time ,to this case. Men have and always will have one weakness and you all know what it is.
For once, just admit that you can not resist any woman who is interested. Let's line up all the men that lost their power and position because of this kind of powerful attraction...she is Lady Doom! Let us first start with the politicians. Then we can make them coloring book characters and color them Crayola's biggest seller , the color "stupid".
You are damn right. You screwed up when you made us take a bite out of that apple. It has been an uphill battle for a man ever since then . The only time we attain total freedom is when our pecker quits working completely. For i say freedom at last, freedom at last!!!!!
Didn't anybody notice the title to the book? They left the first two words off:
IS IT all in?
True statement....
This decision is not surprising at all. To prosecute her would entitle the defense to drag the 4 Star General through the mud again. It's just the Govt. protecting their own!
Another one bites the dust and finally gone with the wind!!!! Actually the bimbo looks a little like a transvestite. She looks way too strong in the upper torso. Maybe our general was couple of sheets into the wind. It appears at minimum that he had a Napoleon complex.
She is a tramp who knew what she was doing plain and simple. As for his wife, will she should spruce herself up and leave him high and dry, because he's not worth it. But such is life. Personally, I think this woman is a loser to have done what she did but that is jmo
She will never do better by leaving him. If she leaves, she will be alone for the rest of her life.
Ok Here is the problem i have. As a soldier you are held to a higher standard. Exp E-1 to E-5. This is a retired 4 star who gets ret pay and so on. She is an officer as well. He is married and she knew it. He may be retired but he knew wrong is wrong and him having sex with her is wrong. He was a leader that should be held to his actions. They both shoud get ucmj , un becoming,adultry, lying, Im sure this is not his first time cheating on the wife. I dont think the tax payers want to know they are getting paid to have fun on our money. as in computers, black berrys and so on. This is a slap in the face for all . I know soldiers who are lower ranks who are getting ar 15 for cheating with a dis hon discharge. Just a shame.
Broadwell is an Officer in the Reserves. She doesn't fall under the UCMJ because she wasn't and isn't on Active Duty. Once they kick her out of the Reserves, she will get nothing. No benefits of any kind.
This goes to prove the old saying -"It's not what you do but rather who does it." When you've got friends in high places, you can get away with just about anything, and sometimes even murder. Does anybody think that if someone like Bill Gates were to commit a murder, he would go to prison? Forget it . It would never happen. Here's what would happen: His big shot attorneys from the most prestigious law firms in the country would ask the court's permission to incarcerate him in a mental institution of his choice, which would be a private mental institution, he'd end up buying it, putting it on a 20 acre plot of land, equipped with tennis courts, golf courses, riding stables, and swimming pools, and he'd hire his own private security guards to guard him, and the court would go along with it. He'd have unlimited visitors and daily coctail parties. Welcome to reality.