--- ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) # The Petraeus Affair: Why Was Obama Kept in the Dark? by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 14, 2012 10:45 AM UTC  WASHINGTON - APRIL 28: President Barack Obama (L) listens while his nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Army Gen. David Petraeus, speaks in the East Room of the White House April 28, 2011 in Washington, DC. President Obama announced he is nominating Director of the CIA Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense, commander for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US forces in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus as Director of the CIA, Ryan Crocker as US ambassador to Afghanistan and Gen. John Allen as commander for ISAF and US forces in Afghanistan. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images) \*\*\* Local Caption \*\*\* David Petraeus;Barack Obama; WASHINGTON - APRIL 28: President Barack Obama (L) listens while his nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Army Gen. David Petraeus, speaks in the East Room of the White House April 28, 2011 in Washington, DC. President Obama announced he is nominating Director of the CIA Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense, commander for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US forces in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus as Director of the CIA, Ryan Crocker as US ambassador to Afghanistan and Gen. John Allen as commander for ISAF and US forces in Afghanistan. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images) \*\*\* Local Caption \*\*\* David Petraeus;Barack Obama;Getty Images—2011 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Nov 14, 2012 10:45 AM UTC Forget the salacious details of [David Petraeus](http://topics.time.com/david-petraeus/)‘s affair with [Paula Broadwell](http://topics.time.com/paula-broadwell/) for a moment. Focus on the key national security facts: the head of the CIA was having an extramarital affair, and was communicating with his mistress over an unsecure Gmail account for up to eight months. In the world of espionage, those are potentially important—even vital—secrets, and certainly ones that the Commander in Chief should know. The affair could expose the CIA chief or the mistress to blackmail. The use of an unclassified e-mail account to communicate potentially damaging details of his private life could speak to the judgment of the nation’s top spy. For these reasons, an official who knew those secrets and didn’t tell the President had better have a good reason for keeping them to himself. And yet the Obama Administration has offered little explanation as to why the Justice Department kept the the President in the dark about the Petraeus affair until two days after the election. Prosecutors and FBI agents knew at least as early as last July that the affair was occurring; high-level Justice officials, including Attorney General [Eric Holder](http://topics.time.com/eric-holder/), knew in “late summer.” According to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, the President “was obviously surprised” when he learned of the affair on Nov. 8. (**MORE:** [Beneath Glowing Public Image, Petraeus Had His Critics](http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/13/beneath-glowing-public-image-petraeus-had-his-critics/)) At a press conference Tuesday, Carney brandished the word “protocol” seven times. “There are protocols that the FBI follows with regards to these kinds of notifications,” he said. Administration officials speaking on background are a little more specific. A law enforcement official told TIME Tuesday that the investigation “was handled as routine criminal investigations and ongoing criminal investigations are handled.” Why wasn’t the President told? “Allegations get bandied about,” the official says. “So until you run those down you don’t share them outside of law enforcement. That’s one reason. Another reason — probably a more compelling reason — is criminal investigations can result in criminal charges. You don’t talk about evidence or things that might be crucial to a prosecution outside of the law enforcement agency, because you could potentially jeopardize the potential prosecution.” Such prudence is a well-established approach, the law enforcement official says. “This has been long standing practice for many, many years.” The official cited a 2007 [memo](http://www.justice.gov/ag/readingroom/ag-121907.pdf) by then Attorney General Michael Mukasey regarding contacts with the White House during criminal investigations. As part of the process of cleaning up the politically motivated firing of U.S. Attorneys under his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, Mukasey issued explicit instructions that Justice officials had to follow. “Alerting the White House of an ongoing investigation? That’s a huge no-no,” the law enforcement official says. Unfortunately for the Obama team, there are huge holes in their arguments. For starters, Mukasey himself says there is no prohibition on Justice-to-White House communication in criminal investigations. “The memo makes it quite clear that not only is that not the case, it is explicitly not the case,” Mukasey told TIME Tuesday evening. Says Mukasey: “The point is not that the White House can never be apprised of a pending criminal investigation; the point is that the White House should not reach out and influence a pending criminal investigation.” (**MORE:** [For Petraeus, the CIA Was an Uncomfortable Fit](http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/13/for-petraeus-the-cia-was-an-uncomfortable-fit/)) More to the point, Mukasey’s memo specifically instructs “all components of the Justice Department” that “it is critically important to have frequent and expeditious communications relating to national security matters, including counter-terrorism and counter-espionage issues.” If anything, the Mukasey memo orders Justice Department officials–including prosecutors and the FBI–to communicate with relevant political authorities when they make a discovery like they did in the Petraeus case. The Mukasey memo isn’t binding on the current Attorney General, or the Justice Department. But it is not the only precedent that suggests the Administration handled the Petraeus affair badly. In late 1996, the CIA began an investigation of then Director John Deutch after computer security experts found classified information on his unclassified home computer, including details of some of the agency’s most closely held covert operations. His successor George Tenet was widely criticized for not informing the Justice Department about the security breach, and belatedly suspended Deutch’s security clearance. Administration officials declined to provide any further specific protocols that prevented them telling the President about Petraeus’ affair. Instead, the Administration is trying to stretch the facts of the Petraeus case to fit the Mukasey memo and other precedents. On one hand, they argue that national security was never an issue. “Early enough on in the investigation, any national security threat was ruled out,” says the law enforcement official. On the other hand, they argue that they can’t risk telling anyone outside Justice, because Petraeus might become a target. “You don’t know where the facts are going to go. What if he becomes \[a target?\]” says the official. (**MORE:** [Petraeus Stumbles Off the Stage](http://nation.time.com/2012/11/09/petraeus-stumbles-off-the-stage/)) Why criminal evidence might turn up but national security evidence wouldn’t is anyone’s guess. For his part, Mukasey argues it is obvious that an ongoing extramarital affair by the CIA chief is a potential national security issue. “They know enough at the point that his name turns up,” says Mukasey. “He’s doing it on a Gmail account which any intelligence agency in the world would want to know about, and if they did know about, would feel in a position to use.” The only remaining question is how President Obama feels about his Attorney General keeping him in the dark for so long. Presumably we’ll get that answer later today at his press conference. Here’s the “decretal,” or tasking, part of the Mukasey memo: --- > “” --- **MORE:** [Senate Intelligence Committee to Probe Petraeus Affair](http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/13/senate-intelligence-committee-to-probe-petraeus-affair/) The Petraeus Affair: Why Was Obama Kept in the Dark? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7183857/the-mukasey-memo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7183857/the-mukasey-memo/"},"headline":"The Petraeus Affair: Why Was Obama Kept in the Dark?","datePublished":"2012-11-14T10:45:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:47:01.769Z","description":"Forget the salacious details of David Petraeus's affair with Paula Broadwell for a moment. 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