'Shirtless FBI agent' in Petraeus sex scandal identified, has reputation as hero

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - The Tampa FBI agent who prompted the investigation that resulted in CIA Director David Petraeus' resignation is no stranger to the limelight.

FBI Special Agent Frederick Humphries II played a key role in stopping a terrorist attack aimed at blowing up Los Angeles International Airport just as the year 2000 dawned. He also fatally shot a man who threatened him and other law enforcement officers with a knife during an altercation at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base in 2010.

Humphries was the agent who initially saw the emails Petraeus' biographer, Paula Broadwell, sent to Tampa socialite Jill Kelley. Humphries thought the emails raised serious concerns because the anonymous author knew the comings and goings of Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

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He was initially an unnamed character in the scandal, identified in the media as the "Shirtless FBI Agent" because he had once sent Kelley shirtless photos of himself, according to a federal law enforcement official.

He passed the information along to others for investigation, and was subsequently told to steer clear of the case because his superiors worried that he had become obsessed with it, the official said.

But Humphries reportedly passed along a tip about Petraeus' affair to Republican Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state, who got word to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Oct. 27, nearly two weeks before the scandal became public.