Colin Powell denies affair after emails are hacked by mysterious ‘Guccifer’

Colin Powell on Thursday denied having an extramarital affair with a
Romanian diplomat after a hacker exposed personal emails between the
two.

“When I was the secretary of State and she was an assistant to the president of Romania, we occasionally attended the same diplomatic and
international meetings,” Powell said in a statement to The Smoking
Gun. 

{mosads}“This was a friendship that electronically became very personal and
then back to normal,” he continued. “Over time the emails became of a
very personal nature, but did not result in an affair. Those type of
emails ended a few years ago. There was no affair then and there is
not one now.”

A hacker known as “Guccifer” broke into the former secretary of
State’s personal email account and posted a link to some of the
correspondence on Powell’s Facebook page.

The correspondence between Powell and Corina Cretu, a Romanian
diplomat, “would leave most readers with the clear impression that the
forlorn Cretu is writing about the twilight of a romance,” according
to The Smoking Gun.

“Cretu calls him the love of her life and describes a relationship
that spanned more than a decade,” The Smoking Gun said.

In one of the emails, Powell told Cretu that his account had been
breached, “so best to delete all between us.”

“In light of what was happening it seems obvious to ask Ms. Cretu to
delete emails,” Powell said in the statement. “She sent photos on a
regular basis. Lots of family photos with her nieces, who she adores,
family reunions, formal business sessions, her wedding and some
bathing suit photos … Never anything improper.”

Powell has been married to his wife Alma for 50 years. Cretu just
recently got married. Powell said the two “remain friends and are in
touch,” but have only seen each other “once or twice” over the past
eight years at “group conferences” in Washington, D.C.

“I am pleased that she is having a successful career,” Powell said. “I
am pleased that she is recently and happily married.”

Guccifer has become notorious for hacking into the personal email
accounts of government officials and political figures. The hacker
first brought to light former President George W. Bush’s fondness for
painting in emails released earlier this year.