Kelley was a member of the Friends of MacDill, an 800-member civilian support group that enjoyed access to the Tampa-area Air Force base for which the group was named. After passing a background check, Kelley joined the group in November 2010, had her membership renewed in February and saw her base access card yanked on Tuesday over an investigation into her digital correspondence with Allen, according to a military source.

Kelley organized dinners and invited big names. Owning a bay-front mansion and being married to a prominent cancer surgeon helped.

Dr. Kelley was so interested in the military that he attended a Pentagon citizen’s academy last year.

“I think Jill is just one of these people who enjoyed meeting people and wanted to get involved in the community. She was going to make a place for herself and her family,” said Tampa Bay magazine publisher Aaron Fodiman. “I think she chose a home on Bayshore Boulevard because it was a statement.”

But court records show that even while the Kelleys were hosting parties, they were falling deeper into debt. Hillsborough County Court records show that the mansion is in foreclosure, and the Kelleys lost a $2 million downtown Tampa building they had bought after a legal battle with a tenant.

Khawam, too, has stumbled financially, even as she has seemingly raced after the politically connected

This year, Washington court records show, Khawam has asked her ex-husband — with whom she is engaged in a child custody battle — if she could take their young son to a Capitol Hill reception sponsored by Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democratic Senate fundraising event on Martha’s Vineyard, a baptism for the son of former Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy and a “family clambake” sponsored by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

The young son, Khawam assured her ex-husband, “knows Senator Whitehouse and his family from spending time together with them last summer,” court records show. The son is now 4.

Other well-positioned friends have kept bailing Khawam out, in different ways.

During her child custody battle, court records show that Petraeus and Allen submitted letters of support.

Gerald Harrington, a major Democratic donor and president of a Rhode Island-based health care lobbying firm called Capitol City Group, loaned Khawam $300,000, according to her subsequent bankruptcy filings. Khawam also reported receiving personal loans totaling some $1.8 million from other individuals, including $800,000 from her sister and brother-in-law.

Like Kelley and Khawam, Petraeus and Broadwell have remained out of public view since Nov. 9. Petraeus quietly slipped onto Capitol Hill on Friday to testify behind closed doors to the House and Senate intelligence committees about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

“These things happen, and they are unfortunate in many different ways” Lee Hamilton, former Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday. “You should certainly as an agency make it known that this kind of conduct is unacceptable. But there is no foolproof method to protect yourself against this kind of development.“

Robles, of The Miami Herald, reported from Tampa.