This July 13, 2011, photo made available on the International Security Assistance Force's Flickr website shows the former Commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shaking hands with Paula Broadwell, co-author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."As details emerge about Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Broadwell, including a second woman who allegedly received threatening emails from the author, members of Congress say they want to know exactly when the now ex-CIA director and retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner. (AP Photo/ISAF)
This July 13, 2011, photo made available on the International Security Assistance Force's Flickr website shows the former Commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shaking hands with Paula Broadwell, co-author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."As details emerge about Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Broadwell, including a second woman who allegedly received threatening emails from the author, members of Congress say they want to know exactly when the now ex-CIA director and retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner. (AP Photo/ISAF)
FILE- In this March 26, 2012, file photo, Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan listens during a news conference at the Pentagon. When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pointedly warned young troops last spring to mind their ways, he may have been lecturing the wrong audience. The culture of military misconduct starts at the top. At least five current and former U.S. general officers have been reprimanded or investigated for possible misconduct in the past two weeks _ a startling run of embarrassment for a military whose stock among Americans rose so high during a decade of war that its leaders seemed almost untouchable. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
Jill Kelley looks out the window of her home Tuesday, Nov 12, 2012 in Tampa, Fla. Kelley is identified as the woman who allegedly received harassing emails from Gen. David Petraeus' paramour, Paula Broadwell. She serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
In this July 25, 2005 photo, FBI Agent Fredrick Humphries listens during a news conference after the sentencing of Ahmed Ressam at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle. Humphries has been identified as the agent socialite Jill Kelley contacted to complain about harassing emails sent by Gen. David Petraeus' paramour, Paula Broadwell. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Casey)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? It started in May with a spiteful email to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. An anonymous writer warned Gen. John Allen that a friend with whom he was meeting in Washington the following week was trouble and he should stay away from her.
Allen thought the email was a joke because he didn't know how anybody else would know about his personal plans with his friend, Florida socialite Jill Kelley, a person close to Kelley said.
That email started a chain of events that led to the downfall of CIA Director David Petreaus, put Allen's career on hold and landed a decorated FBI agent in hot water for talking about an ongoing investigation. The FBI traced that email and others of a similar vein to Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer, who agents would soon learn had also been his lover.
The fast-moving scandal broke just days after President Barack Obama was elected to a second term in office. Obama's administration had been on the defensive for weeks because of a terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. Briefings on the attack had been postponed until after the election and are now focused more immediately on Petraeus' love life than on how terrorists were able to attack the poorly defended consulate.
Obama said Wednesday he's seen no evidence that national security was damaged by the revelations that ended his CIA director's career and imperil that of his Afghanistan war commander. But lawmakers aren't taking Obama's word for it and grilled FBI and CIA officials privately about the same issues: whether national security was jeopardized by the case and why they didn't know about the investigation sooner.
The FBI's investigation of the matter began last summer when Kelley turned over anonymous emails that had been sent to her and Allen. The first anonymous email was sent to Allen in May, under the pseudonym "Kelleypatrol," the person close to Kelley said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
In midsummer, Kelley shared these emails with an FBI agent, Frederick W. Humphries, whom she met at an FBI community program in 2011.
Concerned that someone was tracking the movements of Allen and Petraeus, the FBI agent set the investigation in motion when he handed the information to the FBI's cyber squad in Tampa. But Humphries was cut out of the loop and took that to mean the FBI was not taking the case seriously, the person close to Kelley said. Humphries would later reach out to Congress in a whistle-blower role that has now landed him under internal scrutiny at the bureau.
But the FBI was taking the case seriously and continues to investigate.
The FBI has found a substantial number of classified documents on Broadwell's computer and in her home, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Broadwell has told agents that she took classified documents out of security government buildings, the official said. Unauthorized possession of classified national defense documents is a crime. The Army has suspended Broadwell's security clearance, which she had as a former Army intelligence officer.
The FBI also found emails between Kelley and Allen that were turned over to the Defense Department for investigation. Obama has put on hold Allen's nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European Command as well as the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe until Pentagon investigators are able to sift through the emails that involve Allen and Kelley.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday he still expects Allen to eventually take over the European Command, but acknowledged, "I see this investigation and how long it could take affecting that."
In an interview with American Forces Press Service, Dempsey said "I absolutely have confidence" in Allen's ability to continue in command in Afghanistan despite the distraction of the scandal.
Speaking at a news conference in Bangkok on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also said he retains confidence in Allen. He added that he knows of no other senior U.S. military officers being linked to the Petraeus investigation.
The Pentagon chief also told reporters he could not rule out the possibility that the Taliban in Afghanistan would try to use Petraeus' admission of an extramarital affair for propaganda purposes. Petraeus was Allen's predecessor as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
FBI Director Robert Mueller and Deputy Director Sean Joyce met privately with legislators on both sides of the Capitol on Wednesday to explain how the investigation unfolded. They met first with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, then crossed the Capitol to meet with the House Intelligence Committee.
Acting CIA Director Michael Morell went before the House panel next, after meeting a day earlier with top Senate intelligence officials to explain the CIA's take on events that led to Petraeus' resignation.
The questioning on Capitol Hill was continuing Thursday. And Kelley's decision to contact her friend at the FBI continues to reverberate months later.
Her own pass to enter MacDill Air Force Base in Florida had been indefinitely suspended, a move that ends her easy access to the senior military officials that dot her social world.
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Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Pauline Jelinek, Lolita C. Baldor, Michael J. Sniffen, Pete Yost and Robert Burns contributed to this report.
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