Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite who received threatening emails that exposed former CIA Director David Petraeus’ affair, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Defense Department for leaking and defaming her name.
The lawsuit has thrust the woman back into the spotlight one year
after she received threatening emails that were eventually linked
to Petraeus’ biographer and mistress, Paula Broadwell.
The 65-page lawsuit filed this week in US District Court in
Washington alleges that Kelley and her husband were dragged into
the sex scandal for revealing cyberstalking threats attributed to
Broadwell. According to the plaintiffs, Kelley was subsequently
made into “an object of ridicule, morale opprobrium, scorn and
derision, causing her shame, public notoriety, egregious loss of
privacy and security.”
While investigating the Petraeus scandal, the Pentagon last year
discovered emails between Gen. John Allen and Kelley,
correspondence largely reported to the media as “flirtatious,”
raising suspicions that the two had also engaged in a separate
affair. In January, the Defense Department determined that Gen.
Allen did not have an inappropriate relationship with Kelley, but
at that point the woman said her reputation had already suffered
and her name had been defamed.
“Today is an unforgettable day because one year ago
threatening emails shook my life, and ultimately changed our
country’s leadership,” Kelley wrote in a statement released
by her publicist on Monday.
“It was under the faithful direction of our concerned military
leaders, that I went to the law enforcement to seek the proper
protection for my family, our commanders and top US officials.
But unfortunately, we did not receive the confidentiality and
protection. Instead we received highly hurtful and damaging
publicity from willful leaks from high level government officials
that were false and defamatory,” she added.
The complaint argues that authorities should have kept her name
confidential after she reported the emails, since she was a
‘victim’ of harassment and therefore should have had the right to
privacy.
Since the Petraeus scandal, Kelley has labeled herself as a
privacy advocate and has written about her support for reform in
a Washington Post op-ed published in January. In a statement
released by her publicist on Monday, she said that she hopes her
lawsuit will strengthen privacy procedures for future law
enforcement investigations.
“Our government can and should do better than intrude on the
privacy and dignity of citizens like my family and yours, and our
public officials should treat our personal lives with the respect
that our Constitution, laws like the Privacy Act and
standards of common decency require,” she wrote. “Until our
privacy laws and practices truly give us both privacy and
protection, I’ll continue to advocate for reform, so others don’t
go through the challenges my friends and family endured.”
But rather than shield her name from public ridicule, filing the
lawsuit has to some extent already had the opposite effect, and
Kelley’s name has been thrust back into the spotlight. Tampa Bay
publicist Glen Selig told ABC News that the lawsuit is likely to
shed further negative light on the socialite.
“I think the public views her as an opportunist and I think
this lawsuit will reinforce that belief,” Selig told the
station, explaining that it is unlikely that Americans will
perceive Kelley as the victim in this case.
“She filed a lawsuit on the anniversary and she released a
statement through a publicist,” he added. “It seems to me
she wants attention.”
Kelley and her husband are seeking a public apology, attorney’s
fees, monetary compensation and a declaration that the FBI
violated the Stored Communications Act.
This article originally appeared on: RT