Times staff and wires 
 
 In Print: Monday, November 12, 2012 
 
 ﻿Gen. David Petraeus, left, longtime friends Scott and Jill Kelley and Holly Petraeus watch the 2010 Gasparilla parade from the Kelleys’ front lawn. 
 
 The woman who reported getting the harassing emails that led to the downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus is, according to a military official, an unpaid MacDill Air Force Base social liaison who once likened the retired general to a grandfather for her daughters. 
 
 Jill Kelley, 37, who lives with her husband and three young daughters in a Bayshore Boulevard mansion in South Tampa, has been friends for years with Petraeus and his wife, Holly. 
 
 Petraeus served as leader of the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base between 2008 and 2010, before he was sworn in as CIA director. The Petraeuses frequently invited the Kelleys to social events held on the base, and the Kelleys likewise invited the Petraeuses to their home. 
 
 While he served as head of CentCom, Petraeus in 2010 marked his first celebration of the Gasparilla pirate festival at the Kelleys' nearly 5,000-square-foot house. He and his wife arrived at a white tent on the front lawn of the home with a 28-officer police motorcycle escort. 
 
 This past September, Jill Kelley said she had been named "honorary consulate general to South Korea" and also attended a breakfast at the White House. 
 
 The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed military official, reported Sunday that Kelley had received harassing emails from Petraeus' mistress, which led the FBI to examine biographer Paula Broadwell's email account and discover her secret relationship. 
 
 As the news about her involvement in the scandal broke Sunday, Kelley was holding a birthday party for one of her daughters. Approached on the lawn during the party, Kelley expressed her family's continuing regard for Petraeus. But she declined to discuss the matter further. 
 
 Later, Jill and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, issued a brief statement: "We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children." 
 
 Dr. Kelley is listed as a general and oncology surgeon at the Watson Clinic in Lakeland. Previously, he was a physician at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. 
 
 • • • 
 
 As more details emerged about Petraeus' affair with Broadwell, members of Congress said Sunday they want to know when the now ex-CIA director and retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner. 
 
 "We received no advance notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee. 
 
 Petraeus resigned while lawmakers still had questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base in Libya that killed four Americans. 
 
 Lawmakers said it's possible that Petraeus will still be asked to appear on Capitol Hill to testify about what he knew about the U.S. response to that incident. 
 
 Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the circumstances of the FBI probe smacked of a coverup by the White House. 
 
 "It seems this (the investigation) has been going on for several months and, yet, now it appears that they're saying that the FBI didn't realize until Election Day that General Petraeus was involved. It just doesn't add up," said King, R-N.Y. 
 
 • • • 
 
 Petraeus, 60, quit Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship. He has been married 38 years to Holly Petraeus, with whom he has two adult children, including a son who led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan as an Army lieutenant. 
 
 Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer, is married with two young sons. 
 
 Broadwell has not responded to multiple emails and phone messages. 
 
 Petraeus' affair with Broadwell will be the subject of meetings Wednesday involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA deputy director Michael Morell. 
 
 Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before the committees on Thursday to testify on what the CIA knew and what the agency told the White House before, during and after the attack in Benghazi. Republicans and some Democrats have questioned the U.S. response and protection of diplomats stationed overseas. 
 
 Morell was expected to testify in place of Petraeus, and lawmakers said he should have the answers to their questions. 
 
 But Feinstein and others didn't rule out the possibility that Congress will compel Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date. 
 
 The Associated Press and Tampa Bay Times staff writer Amy Scherzer contributed to this report. ||||| Jill Kelley is the mysterious woman at the beginning of a chain of events that led to Gen. David Petraeus resigning as the director of the CIA. Who is she? 
 
 The 37-year-old Florida native was identified as an unpaid "social liaison" to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida by US officials on Sunday, according to the BBC. 
 
 The Associated Press reported that Kelley and her husband were regular guests at events at Central Command on the air base, where Petraeus was stationed from 2008 to 2010. The Kelleys befriended Petraeus and his wife Holly during their time in Tampa. 
 
 A US official said the coalition countries represented at Central Command gave Kelley a certificate as an "honorary ambassador" to the coalition, but she is not employed by the US government and has no official status. 
 
 She was initially reported to work for the State Department, but USA Today later reported that that was not the case. 
 
 According to a local CBS affiliate, Kelley and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, a cancer surgeon, live on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa. 
 
 When the scandal broke on Sunday, she was hosting a lavish birthday party for one of her daughters on the front lawn. It was attended by 100 guests and included a DJ, a jumping castle and caterers. 
 
 "Sunday afternoon, the couple apparently held a birthday party for one of their children. No one answered the door when 10 News knocked on it afterwards," the news outlet reported. 
 
 More on GlobalPost: Jill Kelley: The other woman in David Petraeus scandal 
 
 Neighbors said she enjoyed entertaining at her 5,000 sq ft home in South Tampa, and was usually seen dressed in designer outfits and with full make-up. She was very proud of her work with the military and regarded as a great networker in the community. 
 
 "At weekends while most women dress down and wear sweat pants and the like she will be fully made up and dressed as if she were going to a dinner," a neighbor said. 
 
 Kelley was raised in Philadelphia, according to The New York Daily News. Her family had settled there in the mid-1970s and opened a Middle Eastern restaurant after immigrating from Lebanon, where her father was a renowned organist. 
 
 The Daily Beast said Kelley has three young children with her husband, and she described Petraeus as a grandfather to her family. She has an identical twin, Natalie. 
 
 Kelley reportedly received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman who was allegedly having an affair with Petraeus. According to the AP, Kelley reporting the emails led the FBI to investigate Broadwell's emails, uncovering her affair with Petraeus. A former associate of Petraeus said Kelley was the target of the emails, but there was no affair between her and Petraeus. 
 
 But today, the Daily Mail reported that friends believe it was Kelley's husband who told the FBI. 
 
 "Jill's husband Scott is very protective of her, and I'm sure he was the one who said go to the FBI," a close friend said. 
 
 "They are a very close couple who are devoted to each other and their children. If his family was being threatened he would not hesitate to go to the police." 
 
 Another close friend of Petraeus told ABC News that Kelley and Petraeus' relationship was innocent. "It is very clear there was nothing going on other than friendship between Kelley and Petraeus." 
 
 USA Today reported that Kelley and her husband have hired DC-based crisis manager Judy Smith and attorney Abbe Lowell. 
 
 More on GlobalPost: Petraeus took mistress, Paula Broadwell, to Paris on government-funded trip ||||| She drives a luxury Mercedes and always dresses to kill — but Jill Kelley is actually drowning in debt. 
 
 The woman at the root of the four-star scandal that led to the downfall of David Petraeus and threatens the career of Gen. John Allen lives an extravagant lifestyle that conceals mountains of money owed to banks and credit card companies, court documents show. 
 
 RELATED: HEAT'S ON PRESIDENT OBAMA IN FOUR-STAR FIASCO FOR U.S. 
 
 RELATED: PAULA BROADWELL HOLES UP IN BROTHER'S WASHINGTON, D.C. HOME 
 
 RELATED: GEN. JOHN ALLEN'S BRILLIANT MILITARY HISTORY, ACHIEVEMENTS DIMMED BY PETRAEUS SCANDAL 
 
 The palatial home in Tampa, where Kelley, and her husband, Scott, hosted top military brass, including Petraeus and Allen, has been in foreclosure since 2010. 
 
 RELATED: OBAMA STICKING BY ALLEN 
 
 PHOTOS: THE KEY PLAYERS IN THE PETRAEUS SCANDAL 
 
 Court records reveal that in March of that year, Bank of America claimed the Kelleys hadn’t paid their mortgage since September 2009. 
 
 The bank said the couple owed $328,338 on their home valued at $1,837,571. 
 
 SDFL/Splash News 
 
 The house remains in the foreclosure process, with the most recent motion filed on Oct. 12. 
 
 Kelley, who is an unpaid social liaison to the men and women in uniform coming and going from MacDill Air Force Base mere miles away from her home, never showed signs of stress. 
 
 “ She turns heads,” an anonymous friend of the Kelleys told the Daily Mail. 
 
 “At the parties she would flirt with all the senior military guys. She’s touchy-feely. Her hands would be on their arms. She was attentive. It’s not hard to see why she had some guys under her spell.” 
 
 Yet the party was at risk of coming to an end for at least two years. 
 
 Chris O'Meara/AP 
 
 A second property owned by the Kelleys in downtown Tampa was also in foreclosure proceedings beginning in 2010. 
 
 In that case, Central Bank claimed the couple owed $2.2 million, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The case was resolved, though details were not available. 
 
 And in 2010, Chase Bank sued the Kelleys over failure to pay a $25,088.56 debt on a revolving credit account. The case was voluntarily dismissed by the bank a year later. 
 
 Regions Bank sued the Kelleys for $253,437.31 in unpaid credit card bills, according to court documents. 
 
 In February the couple agreed to pay $850 a month, with $8,500 down, until the balance is paid, records show. 
 
 Chris O'Meara/AP 
 
 All told, Jill or Scott Kelley have been the subject of at least nine lawsuits since they moved to Florida, according to the Tampa Bay Times. 
 
 But their troubles weren’t just restricted to the Sunshine State. 
 
 The Kelleys were sued in 2004 in Montgomery County, Pa., by a couple who said they refused to return a $10,000 deposit on a condo rental that fell through. The court issued a default judgment against the Kelleys, and court records show it was paid the following year. 
 
 Despite their debt, the couple remained firmly established as the de facto welcoming committee to top military brass at U.S. Central Command. 
 
 Photos from bashes at Chez Kelley show a jolly Petraeus wearing beads around his neck alongside the woman who would ultimately lead to his undoing. Holly Petraeus — who is now reportedly fuming over her spy husband’s not-so-secret affair — also is all smiles. 
 
 Courtesy of Tampa Bay Magazine. 
 
 The swank soirees came complete with catered buffets, valet parking, primo cigars, Champagne and even string quartets, the Washington Post reported. 
 
 “Jill was such an awesome client,” one caterer told the Tampa Bay Times. “(She) did so much for the military, fabulous mother and amazing wife; can’t say enough nice things about her. She never spared anything for the military. It was all about them.” 
 
 Scott Kelley is reportedly a highly sought-after surgeon specializing in cancer of the esophagus . 
 
 But a tax filing from 2007 for the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation provides a hint at the cost of sparing no expense for the brass he and his wife so admired. 
 
 The nonprofit foundation lists only Jill and Scott, along with Jill’s twin sister Natalie Khawam as its trustees. 
 
 Chris O'Meara/AP 
 
 The foundation — dedicated to “efforts to discover ways to improve the quality of life of terminally ill adult cancer patients” had no employees, according to the documents. 
 
 Yet in a single year, the Kelley clan spent $43,317 in meals and entertainment connected to the foundation, according to tax filings. They spent $8,822 in travel expenses, and $3,740 in office-related expenses, though the nonprofit was based in their home. 
 
 The foundation did not file tax information past 2007. 
 
 But it’s clear the Kelleys’ connections had perks — though they couldn’t save Natalie from her own money troubles. 
 
 Both four-star generals caught in the scandal vouched for Natalie in letters supporting her in a custody battle over her son. 
 
 Amy Scherzer/St. Petersburg Times 
 
 Not only did the judge in the case award Natalie’s ex-husband custody last year of their now 4-year-old son, John, but he also told Natalie to pay his legal bills amounting to $350,000. 
 
 She filed for bankruptcy in April after racking up more than $3 million in debt, according to federal court records. Court filings indicate that the debt included an $800,000 personal loan from Jill and Scott Kelley. 
 
 The status of Natalie’s most recent custody appeal was not known. 
 
 None of the lawyers listed in the reams of court documents returned phone calls. 
 
 Chris O'Meara/AP 
 
 The only information from the Kelley family came in a statement from their superstar crisis manager, Judy Smith, who pleaded for privacy. 
 
 Jill’s brother David Khawam, an attorney based in Mount Laurel, N.J., told the Burlington County Times he spoke with her Sunday. 
 
 “She was doing okay. I don’t know how she’s handling it now,” Khawam, 40, told the paper. 
 
 sbrown@nydailynews.com 
 
 CLICK FOR VIDEO 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! ||||| Jill Kelley, social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base, is mystery woman Paula Broadwell harassed via email leading to FBI probe Jill Kelley, 37, of Tampa, Fla., reportedly alerted the FBI several months ago about threatening emails she had received from Petraeus alleged mistress, biographer Paula Broadwell, a senior military official told the Associated Press. 
 
 Jill Kelley, 37, (right) is believed to be the 'mystery woman' who blew the lid off former CIA Director David Petraeus ’ career-ending affair. She is seen here with Petraeus' wife Holly Petraeus (left) and her husband Scott Kelley at a party. 
 
 The mystery woman who blew the lid off former CIA Director David Petraeus’ career-ending affair is also tied to the military — a sexy social liaison for an Air Force base in Tampa who says she and the ex-general are just “friends.” 
 
 RELATED: FBI AGENT SENT TOPLESS PICTURES TO PETRAEUS WHISTLEBLOWER 
 
 
 
 Jill Kelley, 37, a married mother of three from the Gulf Coast city, alerted the FBI several months ago after receiving emails from Petraeus’ alleged mistress, biographer Paula Broadwell, warning the stunning Tampa socialite to “stay away from” the spymaster, according to sources with knowledge of the messages. 
 
 RELATED: COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN SENT THOUSANDS OF EMAILS TO WHISTLEBLOWER 
 
 Bill Serne/New York Daily News 
 
 The raven-haired Kelley, who has an unpaid position as a social planner for MacDill Air Force Base, insisted in a statement Sunday her relationship with the retired four-star general and ex-CIA director was platonic, dating to when Petraeus ran the U.S. Central Command from the base. 
 
 
 
 “We and our family have been friends with Gen. Petraeus and his family for over five years,” Kelley said. “We respect his family’s privacy and want the same for us and our three children.” 
 
 TWO FAMILIES SHATTERED: CIA DIRECTOR DAVID PETRAEUS' ACCUSED MISTRESS HAS 'IDYLLIC FAMILY' 
 
 BEFORE AFAIR WENT PUBLIC, PETRAEUS' MISTRESS SAID GENERAL HAD 'NO DIRTY SECRETS' 
 
 Amy Scherzer/Tampa Bay Times 
 
 But Broadwell’s father said Sunday his daughter is the victim of character assassination and implied the bombshell story is just a smoke screen for something bigger. 
 
 
 
 “This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,” Broadwell’s dad, Paul Krantz, told the Daily News outside his home in Bismarck, N.D. 
 
 
 
 “There is a lot more that is going to come out,” said Krantz, claiming he was not allowed to elaborate. “You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.” 
 
 
 
 He said he supports his daughter “100%.” 
 
 PETRAEUS AFFAIR: TIMELINE ON PAULA BROADWELL AND THE GENERAL'S PHYSICAL SPECIAL OPS 
 
 CSM Marvin L. Hill 
 
 “I stand by my daughter. She is an exceptional person,” Krantz told The News, adding that Broadwell, a West Point grad, and her family were “doing well, considering.” 
 
 
 
 Kelley has not spoken publicly about the scandal. She and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, were busy Sunday entertaining guests at a birthday party for one of their daughters at their colonial-style mansion overlooking Tampa’s Hillsborough Bay. 
 
 Bill Serne/New York Daily News 
 
 In an exclusive photo obtained by The News, the Kelleys appeared worried while speaking with Vice Adm. Robert Harward, deputy commander of the Central Command, who showed up at the party in his white dress uniform. 
 
 
 
 Jill Kelley was raised in Philadelphia, where her family settled in the mid-1970s and opened a Middle Eastern restaurant after immigrating from Lebanon. Her father, John Khawam, was a renowned organist in Lebanon. 
 
 ISAF/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 A close friend of Petraeus told ABC News that Kelley saw the general often, but their relationship was innocent. 
 
 
 
 “It is very clear there was nothing going on other than friendship between Kelley and Petraeus,” the friend said. 
 
 
 
 In 2010, Kelley and her husband, a surgeon at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, invited Petraeus and his wife of 38 years, Holly, to be their guests at a party for the Gasparilla parade, an annual pirate-themed festival in Tampa. At the time, Petraeus ran the Central Command from MacDill. 
 
 Getty Images 
 
 Kelley’s 7-year-old daughter, Caroline, even posted a family photo album online that she dedicated to her parents and included family photos — one of her and her sisters posing with Petraeus. 
 
 
 
 “I was with Gen. Petraeus. He came to my house,” Caroline wrote. 
 
 
 
 Broadwell’s extended family members were completely caught off guard by the news of Petraeus’ shocking resignation, which broke Friday. 
 
 
 
 “They didn’t find out about the affair until they saw it on the news Friday night,” the grandmother of Broadwell’s husband, Scott, told The News. “Everyone’s reaction was shock. We were all shell-shocked.” 
 
 T. Ortega Gaines/The Charlotte Observer via AP 
 
 The grandmother, who would only give her first name, Sylvia, described Paula Broadwell as “intelligent and really smart.” 
 
 
 
 “She’s too smart for that,” said Sylvia, adding that her grandson is “a wonderful father to those two young kids.” 
 
 
 
 She said Scott Broadwell’s parents in Sanibel, Fla., “felt like the rug was pulled out from under them.” 
 
 
 
 “It’s a sad situation,” the grandmother said. 
 
 
 
 Petraeus began seeing Paula Broadwell, a writer with a military background, on the side in 2011, several months after he retired from the military, but ended the romance about four months ago, sources told ABC News. 
 
 BuzzFeed, citing sources, said he took her on a government-funded trip to Paris in July 2011. 
 
 Russell Broadwell, Scott’s father, confirmed to The News that he, too, was astonished by the news he first heard on TV Friday. 
 
 Asked if he has spoken to his son, Broadwell said, “Of course, he’s my son.” He refused to further comment. 
 
 
 
 Paula Broadwell, 40 (above), wrote the biography “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” She has yet to publicly comment on the scandal that has rocked Washington and the U.S. security community. 
 
 
 
 A source told The Wall Street Journal that Broadwell, who lives in North Carolina, became jealous when she suspected Kelley was in a romantic relationship with Petraeus. 
 
 AP Photo 
 
 Kelley’s twin sister, Natalie Khawam, is a lawyer who represents whistleblowers, but there was no indication Sunday that she was representing her sister. 
 
 
 
 The FBI probe into the menacing emails uncovered other exchanges between Broadwell and Petraeus’ personal email account that made clear their relationship had gone beyond professional limits, including one that talked about “sex under a desk.” 
 
 
 
 The scandal is spreading beyond the participants into the political arena. Several top lawmakers are demanding more information about what the FBI, the CIA and President Obama knew — and when they knew it. 
 
 
 
 Obama accepted the 60-year-old Petraeus’ resignation Friday, a mere three days after his reelection. 
 
 AP Photo 
 
 Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) confirmed Sunday he first learned of the affair several months ago from a friend who knows Kelley. Reichert told House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who put Kelley in touch with FBI Director Robert Mueller. 
 
 
 
 Cantor’s staff didn’t immediately tell the House Intelligence Committee or other House leaders because they didn’t know whether the information was credible, Fox News reported. 
 
 
 
 Retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Boylan, Petraeus’ former spokesman, said the general is kicking himself for his atrocious lack of judgment. 
 
 
 
 “He hugely regrets what happened,” Boylan told ABC News. “He pretty much threw away the best job he ever had and put his family through something just too hard to describe.” 
 
 
 
 whutchinson@nydailynews.com 
 
 CLICK FOR VIDEO
– The Tampa socialite at the heart of the Petraeus "love Pentagon" sex scandal was the co-founder of a cancer charity that does not appear to have been involved in any charity work, the Huffington Post finds. Jill Kelley and her surgeon husband founded the Doctor Kelley Cancer Foundation in 2007, stating that it "shall be operated exclusively to conduct cancer research and to grant wishes to terminally ill adult cancer patients." But records reveal that the charity went bust later that year, having spent every penny of the $157,284 it started with on expenses like parties, entertainment, and travel. The charity also listed $12,807 for office expenses and supplies, and $7,854 on utilities and telephones, which is a little on the steep side for a charity that operated out of the couple's mansion, the HuffPo notes. But the charity isn't all that's surfaced on Kelley: The mansion where Kelley and her husband threw lavish parties for military top brass has been in foreclosure since 2010, reports the New York Daily News. The couple owes vast sums to banks and credit card companies and has been hit by at least nine lawsuits. Kelley isn't just an unpaid social liaison to nearby MacDill Air Force Base, she's an honorary consul of South Korea, an embassy official tells Foreign Policy. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network," the Korean official says, adding that the position is symbolic and has no official responsibilities. Kelley tried to invoke "diplomatic protection" in one of several 911 calls made over the last few days, Fox reports. Complaining about trespassers on her property, Kelley told the dispatcher, "I'm an honorary consul general ... I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable." The Wall Street Journal adds that over the summer, Kelley became worried about personal information getting aired and tried to get the FBI to drop its investigation into threatening emails Paula Broadwell sent her. Broadwell, it notes, also sent anonymous emails to military brass bashing Kelley.