A sure-to-be updated list of sources in the ever-more-spiraling story, in very rough chronological order of appearance:
- Married CIA director who had an affair with his biographer: Named as David Petraeus, retired U.S. general.
- Biographer who had affair with Petraeus and also allegedly sent harassing emails to another woman she suspected was competition for married CIA director’s affections: Named as Paula Broadwell.
- Woman who received those emails and complained to FBI: Named as Jill Kelley, based on information from “three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode.”
- FBI agent who championed investigation into Kelley’s in-box, sent her shirtless pictures of himself and alerted first U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to his concerns the investigation had stalled: Has been named as Frederick W. Humphries II.
- Cantor spokesperson who confirmed the FBI agent had called: Named as Rory Cooper.
- Broadwell’s co-writer on Petraeus book, who says his wife called him “the most clueless person in America” for not realizing Petraeus and Broadwell were having an affair: Named as Washington Post local editor Vernon Loeb.
- “A law enforcement official” who told two New York Times reporters why the agent contacted Cantor: “Because of his ‘worldview,’ as the official put it, he suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama.” Unnamed.
- Source of information indicating Kelley and her husband, Dr. Scott T. Kelley, “have been subjects of lawsuits nine times” including by mortgagers and credit card companies and that Jill Kelley had called 911 complaining about the press and that Jill Kelley had emailed Tampa’s mayor complaining about her 911 calls being made public: Public records.
- Employee of Tampa catering company Events by Amore who told Huffington Post reporters Kelley “is a very philanthropic woman, a wonderful lady“: Unnamed, at employee’s request
- Source who told Politico’s Mike Allen that Gen. John Allen had “exchanged thousands of ‘potentially inappropriate’ emails” with Kelley: Unnamed “senior defense official.”
- Source who told The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller the FBI “had referred ‘a matter involving’ General Allen to the Pentagon“: Named as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who issued a statement.
- Source who told The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller Allen “is under investigation” for “inappropriate communication” with Kelley: Unnamed “senior defense official.”
- Source who told The Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock and Rajiv Chandrasekaran “between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of documents” documenting conversations between Allen and Kelley the FBI turned over to the Pentagon were “a few hundred e-mails over a couple of years” and that “most of them were about routine stuff” and who “questioned the volume of communications reported by the Pentagon, saying ‘it was nowhere near’ 20,000-30,000 personal messages“: Unnamed, called “another senior U.S. official, who is close to Allen.”
- People who say Broadwell has “been in constant contact, emailing/texting- even encouraging them to ‘tell the press her side’ “: Unnamed Broadwell neighbors who spoke to WCNC-TV reporter Dianne Gallagher as FBI searched Broadwell’s house Monday night.
- Professors who taught Broadwell at Harvard’s Kennedy School who described her as “not someone you would think of as a critical thinker” and said her book was “deeply embarrassing”: Unnamed, which Jerry Lanson writes is “spiteful gossip, pure and simple.”
- Person who wrote New York Times ethicist Chuck Klosterman about dilemma of knowing “wife is having an affair with a government executive” but who felt “exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort”: Unnamed, though New York Times Magazine Editor Hugo Lindgren tweeted the letter “is NOT about the Petraeus affair, based on our factchecking.”
“I wish we could get some sort of indication from the newsrooms that are working on this story how many different unnamed sources they have,” a Poynter ethics faculty member named as Kelly McBride said. “Because what I’m worried about is this will all come back to one or two.”
