Petraeus probe spreads to Gen John Allen

The FBI sex-scandal probe that led CIA Director David Petraeus to resign now includes U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the Pentagon said Tuesday. At the same time, an FBI agent investigating Petraeus' extramarital affair was banned from the probe after he allegedly sent shirtless photos of himself to Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa, Fla., woman whose close friendship with Petraeus is tied to his downfall, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. FBI officials were to brief the Senate and House intelligence committees about the case Tuesday. Concerning Allen, the FBI uncovered 20,000 to 30,000 pages of "potentially inappropriate" emails between the four-star general and Kelley, a senior defense official told The Washington Post in a story published Tuesday. Other news organizations reported similar information. Kelly is reported to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair. FBI agents searched Broadwell's home in Charlotte, N.C., Monday night and were seen by reporters carrying away boxes. A law enforcement official told The New York Times Broadwell had consented to the search. Allen succeeded Petraeus as commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in July. He has since been appointed NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and is scheduled to take office in early 2013, pending Senate confirmation. The FBI first told the Pentagon of its probe into Allen's communications with Kelley late Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement on a flight from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, early Tuesday. Panetta said he referred the investigation to the Defense Department's inspector general Monday for further review. At the same time, an FBI agent who triggered the Petraeus probe was barred over the summer from taking part in the case after the bureau discovered he allegedly sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley before the investigation began, the Journal said. Kelley is a volunteer who organizes social events for military personnel at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, where the U.S. military's Central Command, Special Operations Command Central and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are based. The unidentified agent is now under investigation by the FBI's internal affairs Office of Professional Responsibility, two officials familiar with the matter told the Journal. The FBI agent was a friend of Kelley, who received harassing, anonymous emails that led to the probe, officials told the newspaper. Kelley complained in May about the emails to the agent, who referred the case to a cyber crimes unit, which opened an investigation, the Journal said. But supervisors soon became concerned the initial agent had grown obsessed with the case and prohibited him from any role in the investigation, even though he never had a formal role in the investigation, an official told the newspaper. One official said the agent sent shirtless photos to Kelley well before the email investigation began. FBI officials only became aware of them sometime later.