Why was the President notified so late regarding General Petraeus's affair?
Here's what I think, and I haven't seen it mentioned. I don't have a lot of original thoughts, so if this has already been discussed, let me know!
Everyone wonders about the timing. Why was the President notified so late? Please proceed under the decoratively disguised bug:
I think the FBI was actually going to keep it to themselves.
When they started the investigation of Kelley's emails, they did not expect to run into Petraeus. When they decided it was not a security breach, and no laws were actually broken, they had second and third thoughts as to whether they should report a private affair that they had stumbled upon. Here they had been snooping around in emails and discovered this affair, that really could have remained private.
That it was General Petraeus might have influenced their feelings that maybe they did not need to report it. They probably didn't want to. They knew it would be big and their every move and motive would be scrutinized. In any event, they decided not to tell of a private affair that had no security implications as far as they had determined at that time.
But... the shirtless FBI agent through Rep. Reichert, notified Cantor. This was just about a week prior to the election. The FBI agent was getting worried it would stay secret and wanted to get it out there, so he leaked.
UPDATE: [AnnetteK in the comments advises me that the shirtless guy has been identified:
Frederick W. Humphries. Here is a link to NYTimes story on him.]
And, this was the game changer.
Cantor called the FBI, the top guy, Director Mueller, to let him know of the phone call from the leaker. Once the FBI knew that the story was out, and that a congressman and the house majority leader were aware ...
well, they knew it would eventually get out, and decided to err on the side of caution and report it, even though they may not have thought they needed to originally.
They were forced to report it since the news got out. They were afraid of criticism if they did not report it and it hit the wider news.
It could have easily taken several days while they discussed this and decided on what action to take.
So, they finally reported it to the DNI, (Director of National Intelligence) Clapper, who is Petraeus's boss. They were hoping he'd also keep it under covers. They still did not tell the President. Trying to keep it in the family.
DNI Clapper suggested to Petraeus that he resign. Petraeus did.
Weeks prior to all of this happening, Petraeus knew about the investigation, and knew he was busted. But, he didn't resign at that time because he thought it was not going to get out. It looked like, and he may have been told it would go no further.
(Sorry to say, he did not resign because he thought it was the right thing to do. He eventually resigned because he knew the story was out.)
Just days after the shirtless FBI agent inserted himself back into the story and made it known outside the FBI and CIA, the jig was up.
David Corn mentioned tonight on Hardball that the reason President Obama was so nice regarding Petraeus at the press conference today is that he may be having second thoughts himself and wishing he hadn't accepted the resignation so quickly.