General Patraeus has instructed Robert Barnett who has been a partner at Williams & Connolly for 34 years and built a reputation on defending political leaders, the news agency Reuters reports. Barnett has negotiated book deals for President Barack Obama and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and has advised former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush as they moved from government to private life.

Lewinsky connection

Mr Petraeus is currently under investigation from the CIA, the Justice Department, and Congress.
Ms Broadwell has also put in place a high-powered legal team, instructing Robert Muse at Washington DC firm Stein Mitchell Muse & Cipollone. Jacob Stein, another of the firm’s partners, represented Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton impeachment trials in 1998, UK newspaper, The Daily Mail reports.
Jill Kelley, the woman who first alerted the CIA after allegedly receiving harassing e-mails from Ms Broadwell, has hired Abbe Lowell from New York firm Chadbourne & Parke, who defended John Edwards, and Judy Smith, another former representative and crisis manager for Ms Lewinsky.