David Petraeus with wife Holly at his retirement (Creative Commons)

“More like, ‘Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch,’” said the source, who The Daily Beast reports was recently at high levels of the intelligence community.

(MORE: Petraeus' Affair Was Discovered Through Unrelated Email Trace)

Kelley, a friend of Petraeus’ who served as social liaison on Florida’s MacDill Air Force, showed the emails to an FBI friend, who then passed them along to the bureau’s cybercrime investigators in Tampa. The squad may have opened the case primarily because of Kelley’s friendship with an agent, not because the emails were overtly threatening.

The FBI’s investigation into the emails led to the revelation of Petraeus’ extramarital affair with Broadwell. He stepped down Friday in the wake of the scandal. 

(MORE: FBI "Stunned" By Inadvertant Discovery Of Petreaus' Affair)

Government officials said Sunday that the FBI learned about the affair in late summer and notified the Justice Department, the New York Times reports. Officials held off on revealing the information until last week because the investigation was ongoing and had the potential to become a larger security threat if Broadwell had access to classified information on security accounts. USA Today reported that no sensitive information had been compromised.

Some Congress members have expressed anger that the FBI failed to inform lawmakers about the probe earlier. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor learned of the affair almost two weeks before it was revealed publicly, according to an aide for the congressman. 

(MORE: Petraeus Affair Began After Taking CIA Post)

Attorney General Eric Holder was notified in late summer of the investigation, which has led to questions about whether President Obama knew or should have known. The administration said that they were not aware of the situation until last Thursday.

Chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday that the former CIA director will likely still be called to testify about the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. She also threatened to subpoena records regarding a trip Petraeus took to Libya before his resignation.

Feinstein said Sunday that her committee would “absolutely” demand an explanation.

Read more Neon Tommy coverage of the Petreaus affair here.

Reach Executive Producer Elizabeth Johnson here. Follow her on Twitter here.