In a stunning turn of events just days after the election, CIA Director David Petraeus resigned from the agency Friday after admitting that he had an extramarital affair-something he called "poor judgment" on his part.
A statement that was released from the CIA Friday from Petraeus read the following:
"Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation."
A senior Obama administration official told the Washington Post that a "stunned" Obama needed to take a night to consider the resignation request after Petraeus met with the president on Thursday and tendered his resignation due to the affair.
"It was Petraeus's judgment that he couldn't go on leading agency, and the president accepted that judgment," a second senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Post.
Petraeus's resignation is another big name leaving the Obama administration's second term, with Hillary Clinton expected to retire as Secretary of State, and only days after President Obama won re-election Tuesday.
Petraeus, 60, had headed the CIA for 14 months since taking the reins of the agency from Leon Panetta, who became Secretary of Defense.
A graduate of West Point in 1974, Petraeus made his name in 2003 when he led 101st Airborne Division in Baghdad, Iraq, and in Mosul. Afterwards, Petraeus was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2007 to lead the military "surge" in Iraq.
At one point, Petraeus was rumored to be in the mix to be the Republican presidential nominee before Obama chose him to lead the CIA, the Chicago Tribune reported.
While Petraeus was scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill in hearings on the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador and two CIA security officers, in Libya in September, U.S. officials told the Washington Post on Friday that the controversy surrounding the incident - and the administration's shifting explanations for it - were not factors in Petraeus's resignation.
A statement from President Obama on Petraeus's resignation was released by the White House Friday, in which the president praised the outgoing CIA director's decades-long service to the U.S, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Today, I accepted his resignation as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission, and I have the utmost confidence in Acting Director Michael Morell and the men and women of the CIA who work every day to keep our nation safe," President Obama's statement read. "Going forward, my thoughts and prayers are with Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time."
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