A lot of us have been muttering about it....
Jill Kelley: Tampa woman who was hostess to the military
By Carol D. Leonnig, Ernesto Londoño and Julie Tate, Updated: Wednesday, November 14, 9:56 AM
At the parties Jill Kelley hosted at her Tampa mansion, guests were frequently treated to the indulgences of celebrity life: valet parking, string quartets on the lawn, premium cigars and champagne, and caviar-laden buffets.
The main recipients of the largesse were military brass — including some of the nation’s most senior commanders — based at nearby MacDill Air Force Base.
Kelley both flaunted her access to these military VIPs and developed what family members called genuine friendships with some. Now Kelley’s close connections to retired Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, have brought them all under intense scrutiny in an unfolding scandal.
Federal investigators have said that Kelley’s complaint about harassing e-mails — eventually traced back to Petraeus’s biographer — triggered the FBI’s discovery of the general’s extramarital affair and his eventual resignation. According to a senior U.S. defense official, Kelley, 37, also exchanged hundreds of e-mails with Allen, who has now been ensnared in the case, amid questions over whether he had had “inappropriate communications” with her.
Kelley has not responded to requests for comment since her name surfaced as part of the controversy. Officials close to Allen strongly denied suggestions that the general had acted inappropriately with Kelley. In an interview, Kelley’s brother said the relationship between his sister and Petraeus was social and entirely platonic.
“They were truly good friends for years,” said David Khawam, a lawyer in New Jersey.
The investigations into Petraeus’s and Allen’s actions, nonetheless, have raised questions about how Jill Kelley, a woman with no formal military role, had cultivated such close ties to two of the nation’s most revered generals.
One former aide to Allen, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the case, suggested Kelley had simply become a de facto social ambassador among high-ranking military personnel at MacDill, home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.
“Part of the job is social in nature,” including accepting and extending invitations, the aide said. “She was someone who was connective tissue to that world.”
Friends said Kelley was a fixture at social and charity events involving Central Command officials in Tampa, and that her life has often focused on the lavish galas she throws with her husband, Scott, a prominent surgeon in nearby Lakeland. Scott Kelley told grateful guests of various parties that he and his wife felt an obligation to share their good fortune by showing support for the military.
Behind the glamour, though, the couple was racking up substantial debt. Banks have initiated foreclosure proceedings on two of the Kelleys’ properties — not including their six-bedroom home — and other creditors have sued them for tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, according to court records filed in Hillsborough County District Court. A lawyer who represented the Kelleys in the civil suits said he had not been authorized by his clients to discuss the cases.
The Kelleys’ party-giving tradition began even before Petraeus’s stint as commander of Central Command from 2008 until 2010, friends said, but once the general arrived, the two couples developed a genuinely close bond.
Jill Kelley and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, often went shopping and out to lunch with Holly Petraeus, particularly when her husband was stationed in Afghanistan, the friends said. In a 2011 custody battle involving Natalie Khawam and her estranged husband, both Gen. Petraeus and Gen. Allen submitted letters of support to the court.
“We have seen a very loving relationship — a mother working hard to provide her son enjoyable, educational, and developmental experiences,” Petraeus wrote, speaking on behalf of himself and his wife.
In addition to being invited to the Kelleys’ parties, the Petraeuses were also invited to intimate family gatherings, including a Christmas dinner. In one family photobook posted online, David Petraeus is pictured grinning sweetly with the Kelleys’ three young daughters. The caption from their 7-year-old daughter reads: “I was with General Petraeus. He was at my house.”
Federal investigators said Jill Kelley’s closeness to Petraeus — captured in party pictures in local newspapers and online — may have explained why she received harassing e-mails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.
But Kelley’s brother, David Khawam, said that neither of his sisters had anything but a social relationship with Petraeus. He said his sister Jill was a born giver, who early on channeled her charitable efforts into political fundraising and later to the military.
It is a quality, he said, borne of the Catholic family’s persecution in their native Lebanon, when Jill, David and Natalie were small children and their parents eventually fled to the United States, he said. All three built productive new lives in America.
“We feel we owe everything we have to this country,” David Khawam said. “We’re extremely patriotic.”
Jill Kelley seemed eager to make her civic involvement clear to those around her. Outside her two-story mansion on Tuesday was a gray S5000 Mercedes, with vanity plates that read: “Honorary Consul” and “1JK.” Nearby, contractors were piling up tables and folding chairs from a weekend party.
A military officer who is a former member of Petraeus’s staff said Kelley was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Lebanese and other Middle Eastern government officials.
The officer said Kelley’s presence was often a bit puzzling to Petraeus’s staff, but added that there was never any indication that her relationship with the general was anything more than social.
Aaron Fodiman, the publisher of Tampa Bay Magazine and a friend of the Kelleys, said people in the family’s social sphere are shocked by the spotlight that the investigations have cast on the community.
“She is so gracious, so lovely,” he said of Jill Kelley. “She’s one of those people — she walks in the room, and the room lights up.”
Londoño reported from Tampa. Anne Gearan and Rebecca Cohen in Washington contributed to this report.