Is Former CIA Director David Petraeus Living at the Cosmos Club?

David Petraeus. Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Is former CIA director
David Petraeus living at his private club? If not literally, then at least practically? Sources at
the Cosmos Club on Massachusetts Avenue said the retired four-star general has been
seen there so often, some members have joked he’s living there. And they will be seeing
more of him, too: A source said Petraeus has more than 20 upcoming reservations on
the club’s books, indicating he plans to do a lot of entertaining.

This could be coincidental, or—given his speech Tuesday night—it could be part of
a comeback rollout for Petraeus, who resigned from the CIA in September after it was
revealed he’d had an extramarital affair with his biographer,
Paula Broadwell. He gave his first speech since his resignation on Tuesday at an ROTC dinner in Los
Angeles and apologized for the affair and the pain it caused “my family, friends,
and supporters.”

Petraeus has not said he’s on the comeback trail, but many are watching for signs
that he might be. A good first stop, then, could be for one of those watchers to discreetly
park behind a newspaper on a wing chair in the Cosmos Club lobby.

We reached out to his lawyer,
Bob Barnett, who had a one-word comment: “Ridiculous.”

Carol Ross Joynt