Lawsuit by Jill Kelley, socialite involved in Petraeus case, allowed to go forward
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Version 0 of 1. A federal judge Monday ruled that a Tampa businesswoman can go forward with a lawsuit alleging that the federal government violated her privacy in the investigation that led to the resignation of retired Gen. David H. Petraeus as CIA director in 2012. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson threw out most of Jill Kelley’s suit, including allegations that officials violated the Constitution by improperly releasing information about her in investigating threatening e-mails she received from Paula Broadwell, Petraeus’s biographer and a former Army officer who was having an extramarital affair with him. But Jackson ruled that Kelley and her husband, Scott, could pursue a claim under the Privacy Act that the FBI, Defense Department and as-yet unnamed government officials improperly leaked their names to the media, seeking damages and an apology. “Providing information to the media is not among the list of permissible disclosures listed in the Privacy Act,” Jackson wrote. “While it may prove to be the case that the media sensationalized the facts and seasoned its coverage of these events with sexual innuendo on its own, plaintiffs do point to several press accounts that identify the sources as unnamed government or military officials.” In allowing Kelley to depose government officials and seek records to prove her claim, Jackson noted she was not ruling on it yet. “Whether plaintiffs will be able to prove the remaining claims is a question for another day,” Jackson wrote, adding, “The Kelleys may be rightfully aggrieved by the manner in which they were depicted in the media and by the impact of the stream of sensational articles on their reputations, but it remains to be seen if those harms can be laid at the feet of these defendants.” |