Jill Kelley hires high-powered legal help

>>> one of the women involved in the scandal that brought down two generals, david petraeus and john allen is making headlines again this morning. jill kelley is launching a full-court press to respond to what she claims are mistaken notions about her. nbc's pete williams has the latest on this. pete, good morning to you.

>> reporter: matt, good morning. just when this story had about run its course, one of the central figures, jill kelley , is back. her lawyers says some allegations reported about kelley are false, so he's conducting a vigorous campaign to correct what he says are mistakes. jill kelley , the tampa woman who first told the fbi about what she considered abusive e-mails sense anonymously from a woman when turned out to be paula broadwell has reached out to a friend, high-powered criminal defense lawyer abbe lowell to correct what she says are lingering misimpressions. in a letter to the florida bar association lowell says a tampa lawyer who once represented the kelley family acted unethically by making public comments about her two weeks ago, suggesting she was trying to be a social climber as a florida air force base .

>> i understand that -- that there was an effort made to infiltrate, to use a word of art, the deal and the brass.

>> reporter: in response, the lawyer, larry cohen , says nothing he said was based on the legal work for the kelleys, and kelley and her sister are, quote, architects of their own agony and in another letter abbe lowell asks if there's a leaked investigation to find out how kelley 's name became public in the first place as the recipient of paula broadwell's e-mails. a source close to the kelley family insists jill kelley is not trying to keep her name in the news, and the source calls simply false any suggestion that she had an affair with general petraeus or general john allen . never happened, the source says. in another development, the south korean news agency says the government of south korea is revoking kelley 's status as an honorary consul for the country. the source close to the family says she has never tried to use her military friendships or access to do anything improper and is instead being victimized by government leakers and the news media. matt?

>> all right. pete williams in washington on this, pete, thank you very much.