WASHINGTON — The career of David Petraeus, the CIA director and renowned general, was derailed by allegedly vicious emails his paramour sent to another woman. Now the CIA, FBI and White House face questions from Congress about Petraeus' love life and how his emails came under investigation.
And he may not be done with Capitol Hill himself.
Petraeus quit his post Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship.
MORE: PETRAEUS' MISTRESS SENT HARASSING E-MAILS TO WOMAN WHO 'THREATENED' RELATIONSHIP: SOURCES
"It was like a lightning bolt," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee and planned to have Petraeus testify this week on the Sept. 11 attack that killed the US ambassador in Libya and three other Americans.
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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Senator Dianne Feinstein
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Petraeus and Paula Broadwell
Feinstein, D-Calif., said she first learned of Petraeus' affair from the media late last week and was dumbstruck when Petraeus confirmed the affair to her in a telephone call Friday. She said she has since been briefed by the FBI but wants to know why the bureau didn't notify her sooner that the CIA chief was at the center of a serious inquiry.
"We are very much able to keep things in a classified setting," she told "Fox News Sunday." ''At least if you know, you can begin to think and then to plan. And, of course, we have not had that opportunity."
Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before the intelligence committees on Thursday to testify on what the CIA knew and what it told the White House before, during and after the attack in Benghazi.
It now falls to the CIA's deputy director, Michael Morell, to answer lawmakers' questions about the attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base.
Feinstein said she hasn't ruled out compelling Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date. "We may well ask" him at some point, she said. "I think that's up to the committee."
Meanwhile, Morell and the FBI's deputy director, Sean Joyce, also will be asked for answers about who they informed and when in the Petraeus investigation, in meetings with congressional intelligence committee leaders this Wednesday, according to a senior intelligence committee aide.
The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, was told by the Justice Department of the Petraeus investigation on election night, and then called Petraeus and urged him to resign, according to a senior US intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
But the FBI did not inform the committees that oversee the CIA until Friday, after the news about Petraeus broke.
Sen. Feinstein doesn't know why FBI didn't tell her about Petraeus scandal
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Sen. Feinstein doesn't know why FBI didn't tell her about Petraeus scandal
