* Glover Park Group’s consultants included well-known names
* Firm bought by WPP Plc advertising group last year
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov 19 (Reuters) – Paula Broadwell, the
biographer whose affair with former CIA chief David Petraeus led
to his resignation, has hired a high-profile Washington
communications firm, Glover Park Group, to represent her, a
source familiar with the arrangement said on Monday.
Glover Park’s consultants include well-known names such as
Dee Dee Myers, who served as White House press secretary during
President Bill Clinton’s first term.
WPP Plc, the world’s largest advertising group,
bought Glover Park last year.
Broadwell’s hiring of Glover Park was reported by AdAge. The
firm did not respond to requests for comment.
Anonymous emails that Broadwell sent to Jill Kelley, a
Tampa, Florida socialite who knew Petraeus, prompted an FBI
investigation that exposed Broadwell’s affair with Petraeus, a
retired U.S. Army general known for his success in the Iraq war.
Broadwell is under investigation for her handling of
classified materials, although both she and Petraeus have
separately told investigators they did not share security
secrets.
FBI agents found a substantial amount of classified
information on Broadwell’s personal computer when they searched
her home with her consent last week, according to law
enforcement and national security officials.
Sources briefed on the investigation told Reuters the
documents date from before August 2011, when Petraeus took up
his post at the CIA and the two started their affair. None of
the material comes from the CIA, the sources said.
As an Army reserve officer involved in military
intelligence, Broadwell had a security clearance that allowed
her to handle sensitive documents. However, she would still have
to comply with strict rules that lay out how sensitive materials
must be protected.
Broadwell’s security clearance has now been suspended. She
could have it revoked and face harsher penalties if it is found
that she mishandled classified data.
Broadwell returned to her home in Charlotte, North Carolina,
on Sunday for the first time since the scandal erupted on Nov. 9
with Petraeus’s sudden resignation. Along with her husband and
two children, she was greeted by close friends and neighbors.
“It’s tough,” said neighbor Sarah Curme. “Her primary focus
is her husband and her kids. I think that’s where they are now.”
Glover Park is the latest high-profile adviser hired by a
figure in the scandal.
Kelley is being represented by one of Washington’s most
prominent trial lawyers, Abbe Lowell, a family friend who has
represented former U.S. Senator John Edwards and disgraced
Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Kelley also has enlisted Judy Smith, a well-known crisis PR
manager who is the model for the ultra-effective fixer and spin
doctor Olivia Pope in the ABC TV drama “Scandal.”
Petraeus has hired Washington lawyer, Robert Barnett of
Williams & Connolly LLP, to help him navigate the fallout from
his career-ending affair with Broadwell. [ID: nL1E8MI0VW]
Barnett is known for negotiating book deals for the political
elite, from President Barack Obama to one-time vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin.
