Photograph by Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Retired Army General David Petraeus, pictured as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in 2007. Photo by Ken Cedeno / Bloomberg

KKR & Co.  the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, is in discussions with former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus about a role at the company, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

It hasn’t been decided yet what role he would have at KKR, said the person, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. Petraeus and Kravis are friends and talk often, according to the person.

Petraeus, 60, resigned from the CIA on Nov. 9 after a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence of an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of a biography about the former commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq entitled “All In.” Last week, City University of New York named Petraeus a visiting professor starting Aug. 1.

Kristi Huller, a spokeswoman for New York-based KKR, declined to comment on the possible hiring. Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus, didn’t respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

KKR has more than 25 senior advisers, who help the firm find and evaluate investment opportunities, according to its website. Some of them advise KKR-owned companies or serve on their boards.

The firm last year named former Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack as a senior adviser to help make KKR “smarter investors,” Kravis said at the time. Other KKR advisers include Honeywell International Inc. (HON) CEO David Cote, former Caterpillar Inc. CEO James Owens and Qantas Airways Ltd. Chairman Leigh Clifford.

Private-equity firms pool money from investors including pension plans and endowments with a mandate to buy companies within about five to six years, then sell them and return the funds with a profit after about 10 years. The firms, which use debt to finance the deals and amplify returns, typically charge an annual management fee equal to 1.5 percent to 2 percent of committed funds and keep 20 percent of profit from investments.

Kravis, Roberts and their partner Jerome Kohlberg Jr. started KKR in 1976, joining a small group of firms doing leveraged buyouts. Kohlberg left the firm in 1987. Today the industry manages about $3 trillion of assets, according to research firm Preqin Ltd. KKR oversees $78 billion, investing in buyouts, energy, real estate and hedge funds.

See the full report on Petraeus and KKR at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Petraeus ‘All In’ for Private Equity? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

General David Petraeus speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for reappointment and commander of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan in Washington, D.C.

First it was Mark Sanford running for Congress. Then it was Anthony Weiner floating a New York City mayoral campaign. Now, David Petraeus is putting himself out there post-scandal — as both a university professor and one lucky philanthropist’s work0ut buddy.

Former CIA Director and retired Army General Petraeus is joining Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York as a public policy visiting professor, the university announced yesterday. He starts Aug. 1.

“I look  forward to leading a seminar at Macaulay that examines the developments that could position the United States – and our North American partners – to lead the world out of the current global economic slowdown,” Petreaus, who has a doctorate from Princeton University, said in a statement.

The new professor is also the advertised prize of a virtual raffle hosted by Omaze, a for-profit crowdfunding website that raises money for charities. The raffle offers a “grueling” workout with Petraeus on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The website, which deems Petraeus “the celebrity” of the “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” is raising money for the Mission Continues, an organization that awards community service fellowships to recent veterans, according to its website.

There’s no fitness requirement noted on Omaze, but participants might want to read up on Petraeus’ six-minute miles before entering.  Petraeus has had plenty of time for his rigorous workouts since he resigned as CIA director last year after the disclosure of his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

“Test your physical limits during an intense workout with the man that was once in charge of all U.S. armed forces’ foreign operations before discussing military strategy over a well-deserved coffee,” the website advertises. It adds that the workout will occur “in late summer or early fall 2013″ and makes no mention of his fall from grace.

A contribution of just $10 will enter a donor into the drawing, so Omaze users don’t have to go all in.

Original post is Crowdfunding Site Offers Professor Petraeus as Prize by Political Capital.

Photograph by ISAF via Getty Images

Gen. Davis Petraeus with biographer Paula Broadwell, co-author of 'All In: The Education of General David Petraeus' on July 13, 2011.

Paula Broadwell, the biographer and mistress of former CIA Director David Petraeus, will not face charges for cyber-stalking, according to federal prosecutors.

In a Dec. 14 letter to Broadwell’s lawyer, U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill advised the West Point graduate that “no federal charges will be brought in the Middle District of Florida relating to alleged acts of cyber stalking.”

The federal investigation that led to Petraeus’s admission of an affair and resignationl was sparked by harassing e-mails received by Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who associated with the retired four-star general. Those e-mails, an FBI investigation discovered, came from accounts associated with Broadwell, according to law enforcement officials. The investigation also uncovered the relationship between Petraeus and Broadwell, which both admitted to during FBI interviews and Petraeus acknowledged in his resignation letter to CIA employees.

“We are pleased with the decision, and are pleased with the professionalism of the Tampa United States Attorney’s Office, particularly Assistant United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow,” Robert Muse, Broadwell’s lawyer, said in a statement.

The letter does not address whether officials are still looking into Broadwell’s possession of classified documents, a large number of which were discovered by the FBI when agents searched her computers, according to the law enforcement officials.

Broadwell told the FBI in interviews that the classified information did not come from Petraeus, the official said.

Last month, Petraeus, 60, resigned and admitted in a statement to having an affair. During his career, he rose to the rank of four-star general and led the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring to become head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Broadwell, 40, graduated with academic, fitness and leadership honors from West Point, according to the Penguin Speakers Bureau. During more than 15 years of military service, she has served with the U.S. intelligence community, Special Operations Command and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, according to the speakers bureau.

Original post is Broadwell: No Cyber-Stalking Charge by Political Capital.

President Barack Obama arrives in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 14, 2012, for his first post election day news conference. Photograph by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

On Day One of his presidency, Republican Mitt Romney liked to say in his TV ads, he’d start taking care of all sorts of business. He promised an ambitious agenda, starting with the repeal of “Obama-care.”

On Day One after re-election, last Wednesday, President Barack Obama suddenly found a lot more on his plate than his own agenda for his second term.

That’s the day he learned that retired Army Gen. David Petraeus had a problem at the CIA: An FBI investigation of e-mail traffic uncovering an extramarital affair between Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Within days, he’d accept Petraeus’ resignation.

By Friday, he’d learn that his nominee for Supreme Allied Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, Marine Gen. John Allen, also had an e-mail problem, with the Defense Department’s inspector general investigating what the FBI had found in Allen’s e-correspondence with Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite whose initial complaint of e-mail harassment initiated the FBI probe that ensnared Petraeus. The general maintains he has done nothing wrong, yet his confirmation hearing is on hold.

And now Israel is engaged in combat with Hamas in the Gaza Strip — Obama has been on the phone  this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (the leader who had gotten fairly cozy with Romney during the election campaign).

Asked at his news conference yesterday when he might schedule that meeting he suggested on Election Night that he would hold with Romney to discuss ways of working together, Obama said: “We haven’t scheduled something yet.”

“I think everybody forgets that the election was only a week ago,” the president said, adding with a laugh: “I know I’ve forgotten… I forgot on Wednesday.”

Original post is Obama: Election Soon `Forgotten’ by Political Capital.

Marine Gen. John R. Allen in May 2012. Photograph by Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP Photo

Updated at 2:10 pm EST

Two four-star generals were set to go up to Capitol Hill this week.

One, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, now former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was supposed to address the Intelligence committees returning from their election recess about what he’d learned from his own personal investigation of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed an ambassador and four other Americans.

The other, Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, was set to appear at a confirmation hearing for his nomination as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces, nominated by the president last month for a post held by the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Now those hearings are off.

Petraeus and Allen are ensnared in a web of e-mails discovered by a FBI investigation of a Tampa woman’s complaint about e-mail harassment. The Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating Allen because of e-mails between him and Jill Kelley, according to a Defense official who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity while traveling with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.   The FBI has handed over 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, most of them e-mails. Panetta has asked senators to delay action on Allen’s nomination. The general remains commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said today that the president had known of the FBI’s findings about Allen since Friday, though he hadn’t learned about Petraeus’ problem until Wednesday, the day after Election Day.

Kelley is a doctor’s wife in Tampa, home of the U.S. Central Command which Petraeus once ran, and where Allen served as a deputy, who complained about receiving harassing e-mails from Paula Broadwell, the Petraeus biographer identified by several officials as the woman involved in an extramarital affair with Petraeus. The CIA director resigned last week because of that affair, unearthed in the FBI e-mail probe.

Enter the president and commander-in-chief, celebrating a re-election won with a commanding lead in the Electoral College and narrow popular vote victory, returning to confront a Congress somewhat more Democratic yet still divided along party lines by Senate and House.

President Barack Obama, who hasn’t held a formal White House news conference since June 8, plans one tomorrow.

In June, he wanted to talk about the economy and Europe, and he took just three questions.

Tomorrow, Obama wants to talk about the way forward with the economy and the looming challenge of the “fiscal cliff” facing Congress at year’s end. He’s likely to face a lot more than three questions, and they will involve much more than the economy.

Original post is Washington’s Homecoming Scandal by Political Capital.

Her book, “All In:  The Education of General David Petraeus,” is a portrait of leadership and innovative military strategy, the counter-insurgency tactics that he developed and deployed.

His reported romantic involvement with her led to his resignation as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, with the hugely decorated four-star general and commander of U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan admitting to “an extramarital affair” in a statement to CIA employees Friday. Three people, all intelligence, military or congressional officials, identified the woman in that relationship as Broadwell, as reported at Bloomberg.com. She has not responded to e-mail requests for an interview or phone messages left at her home.

Broadwell, in a Feb. 20 online interview with a fawning Arthur Kade at his celebrity-interview Web site promoting her best-selling book, said the biography, which started as a doctoral dissertation, led to personal interviews of Petraeus, sometimes while running with him, and “our rapport increased.”  The self-described “soldier-scholar” is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as is Petraeus. She recalls being one in 10 as a woman there.

“It’s not a hagiography,” she said of the book. “I’m not in love with David Petraeus.”

Original post is Broadwell: Petraeus `King of COIN’ by Political Capital.