President Obama demurred when asked if he believes that he or the American people should have known before the election that then-CIA director David Petraeus was under investigation, but said he doesn’t think national security was compromised by the scandal.
“I have no evidence at this point, from what I’ve seen, that classified information was disclosed that would have had a negative impact on our national security,” Obama said, although he emphasized that the investigation is ongoing. “I am withholding judgement with respect to how the entire process respecting General Petraeus came up.”
Obama demurred when asked if the story should have broken before the election, “The FBI has its own protocols on how they proceed,” he replied in telling reporters to question FBI Director Robert Mueller about why the Petraeus scandal only made headlines with his post-election resignation.
The president stuck by his comment about FBI protocols when pressed about the timing of report. “I think you’re going to have to talk to the FBI about what there protocols are when it comes it what started off as a [potential] criminal investigation,” he said, before suggesting that word of the investigation was not reported in order to spare Petraeus’ reputation in the event that the investigators found nothing of concern.
“We want to make sure that we don’t prejudge these kind of situations,” Obama said. “So, my expectation is that they followed the protocols that they had [in place] already.”
“I am withholding judgement with respect to how the entire process respecting General Petraeus came up,” he said later.
