Washington (CNN) - Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, joined other lawmakers Tuesday in expressing concern about how much time had passed before the FBI got word out that former CIA Director David Petraeus was associated with an FBI investigation.
Meeting with reporters after a private meeting with Maine's senator-elect Angus King, Collins said "It does seem like there was an inordinate amount of time that passed. But we really don't have facts yet to reach any kind of conclusion."
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Collins said Petraeus, despite his resignation, remains an important element as lawmakers investigate the circumstances that led to the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
"It's absolutely imperative that General Petraeus come and testify," she said. "He was CIA director at the time of the attack, he visited Libya after the attack, he has a great deal of information that we need in order to understand what went wrong."
Collins also wants to find out whether information was inappropriately shared among Petraeus and his associates.
"I am puzzled by much of what has occurred in the FBI investigation and also the latest information that perhaps General Petraeus' friend had access to some classified information," she said.
The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, voiced similar concerns Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," saying the timing "doesn't add up."
"You have this type of investigation. The FBI investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the CIA director, and taking four months to find out that the CIA director was involved. I have real questions about this. I think a timeline has to be looked at and analyzed to see what happened," King said.