FBI 'stalled Petraeus investigation until after then 2012 election then planned to deal with it quietly,' agent claims

Agent Fred Humphries, who started the investigation, says he faced political interference from FBI higher-ups

Reported CIA Director David Petraeus' affair to two Republican Congressmen because he fared it would be swept under the rug

Humphries is currently under investigation from FBI's internal affairs unit

High-ranking officials at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security purposely stalled the investigation that exposed the affair between CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer until after the 2012 presidential election, claims the agent who started the probe.

FBI Agent Fred Humphries says he was told by his bosses at the bureau that the investigation would be concluded 'quietly' after voters went to the polls - but not until then.

NBC News reports that Humphries told his former supervisor and two Republican Congressmen, including House Majority Whip Eric Cantor, that he believed FBI higher-ups were interfering with the investigation for political reasons.

Exposed: Revelations of the affair between CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, shocked the nation

Outed: Veteran FBI agent Fred Humphries was targeted after he went to Republican Congressmen with allegations of the CIA director's infidelity. This shirtless picture of him was leaked

Humphries is now under investigation by the FBI's internal affairs division for an 'unauthorized disclosure' during the investigation.



Charles Mandigo, Humphries' former supervisor who led the FBI's Seattle field office, told NBC that Humphries believed he had to go outside of the chain of command in order to ensure the Petraeus investigation would be completed and not swept under the rug.



Three days after President Barack Obama was reelected last November, Petraeus issued a statement admitted that he had had an affair and that he was resigning from the CIA.



The revelation shocked the nation, but Humphries feared that it may have never been made public.



The affair began to unravel in June 2012 when Jill Kelley, a socialite in Tampa Bay, Florida, told Humphries - a longtime friend - that she was receiving threatening emails from a user with the handles 'Tampa Angel' and 'Kelley Patrol.'

Agents later tracked the emails back to Paul Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer. They discovered that she had been having an affair with the former four-star general that began while she was working on her book about him, All In.

Friends: Jill Kelley, who started the investigation that led to Petraeus' ouster, befriended the general when he was living in Tampa

Kelley, the wife of a prominent Tampa doctor, served as a volunteer civilian liaison to MacDill Air Force Base, where Petreaus and his wife had been stationed when he served as head of the military's Central Command. Petreaus struck up a friendship with Kelley and Broadwell feared he was having an affair with her, as well.

Humphries, a 17-year FBI veteran with a distinguished counter-terrorism record, wasn't leading the investigation, but regularly checked in.

'He said at one point, he had been told, just sit back and wait. Once the election is over, this will be quietly handled and it will all be resolved,' Mandigo told NBC.



That message, he said, came from a senior agent in Tampa.



The new information comes to light as Kelley prepares to file a lawsuit against the FBI for its handling of the case.

She claims that agents deliberately leaked her name to the public and then leaked emails between her and another general, George Allen, to insinuate an affair between them and smear her name.



She says she was also accused of having an affair with Humphries.















