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Jill Kelley – the Tampa socialite who complained to the FBI about threatening emails sent her way by Paula Broadwell – is suing the FBI and the Department of Defense.

In documents filed yesterday, she claims that the government agencies violated her rights while investigating what turned out to be Broadwell’s affair with David Petraeus.

By exposing her name as the whistleblower, Kelley and her husband say the FBI and DoD ruined their social lives and their connections, both of which are keys to their earning potential.

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“There was no legally acceptable reason for the government to disclose confidential information about the Kelleys and thereby make them part of the public scandal,” reads the lawsuit.

 

Details about the the couple’s personal lives and their fiscal troubles were widely reported, it adds.

“Mrs. Kelley’s reputation is indelibly tainted. She is consistently referred to as the ‘center’ of the ‘sex scandal’ and is often portrayed as the woman who brought down two American generals. As a result, she — the victim and a participant in none of the bad acts in the sex scandal — has shouldered the blame as the villain in the generals’ downfall.”

Kelley now says she’s a fighter for greater Internet privacy, telling The Huffington Post in a statement that her experience here “made me an advocate for privacy rights for every American.”

The Justice Department has 60 days to respond to this lawsuit.