Friends and former staff members say CIA Director David Petraeus was shocked to learn last summer that his mistress was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him.

Petraeus told these associates his relationship with the second woman, Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, was platonic, though his biographer-turned-lover Paula Broadwell apparently saw her as a romantic rival.

The friends also say Petraeus denies he gave Broadwell any of the sensitive military information alleged to have been found on her computer. They say Petraeus told them that anything she had must have been provided by other commanders during reporting trips to Afghanistan.

Broadwell had high security clearances on her own as part of her job as a reserve Army major working for military intelligence. But those clearances are only in effect when a soldier is on active duty, which she was not at the time she researched the Petraeus biography.

Members of Congress have complained that they should have been alerted before Petraeus resigned his post on Friday. Two federal law enforcement officials say the threatening emails from Broadwell to another woman started in May of this year and the FBI investigation began soon after.