Judge won’t open court records in Petraeus case

WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge has ordered the most sensational court records to remain sealed in a now-abandoned lawsuit over leaks in the investigation that led to the resignation of former CIA director David Petraeus.

The files include transcripts of sworn interviews with senior Obama administration officials about the sex scandal and its fallout.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accepted objections by the Justice Department to keep the files private, saying government lawyers “have identified compelling confidentiality, privacy and law enforcement interests served by maintaining those records under seal that outweigh any need for public access.”

The judge added, “No one has asserted any public need for the material,” in Thursday’s order directing that the “records will remain sealed for the time being.”

Among the files were notes from confidential FBI interviews with Petraeus weeks before his resignation; his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he was having an affair; and Jill Kelley, a friend to Petraeus and his wife. Kelley had complained to the FBI in June 2012 about harassing emails from an unknown person who turned out to be Broadwell.

The sealed records also include emails between Petraeus and Broadwell about Kelley — describing an incident at dinner with their spouses when Petraeus said he and Kelley had inappropriately touched each other’s upper thighs — that Broadwell had forwarded to the FBI. Kelley has said nothing inappropriate happened.

Kelley said in a statement Friday that her lawsuit had been about holding political officials accountable and that unsealing the records would prevent it from happening again.

“It’s disappointing that the court confused what my lawsuit was about,” she said. “It was not about protecting my privacy. My privacy was already lost. My lawsuit was about holding the political officials accountable and sanctioning them so what happened to my family never happens to another innocent family.”

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