The twin sister of one of the women in the David Petraeus scandal appeared before the media with celebrity attorney Gloria Allred on Tuesday but declined to answer questions about her links to Petraeus, who quit as director of the CIA after admitting an affair.
Natalie Khawam also did not discuss her relationship with Marine General John Allen, who succeeded Petraeus as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Allen has been linked to Khawam's twin, Tampa, Florida, socialite Jill Kelley, through "flirtatious" emails that turned up in the Petraeus investigation.
Both Allen and Petraeus wrote letters of support on Khawam's behalf when she was in a custody dispute with her ex-husband.
Allred told reporters that Petraeus and his wife, Holly, were long-time family friends of the sisters.
She did not mention the letter of support written by Allen, who took over as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan when Petraeus left the post to become director of the CIA in September 2011.
Petraeus quit the CIA job on Nov. 9, admitting that he had an affair.
The affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was revealed when the FBI found communications between her and Petraeus. Kelley had set the investigation in motion by telling an FBI agent that she had been receiving threatening emails that were eventually traced to Broadwell.
That investigation also uncovered emails between Kelley and Allen that are now the subject of a U.S. Defense Department internal inquiry.
Kelley has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
At the news conference, Khawam described her sister as a kind, generous person and her "best friend." She did not provide details about her or Kelley's relationship with the Petraeus or Allen families, or about her custody dispute.
Khawam's ex-husband, Grayson Wolfe, was awarded sole custody of their four-year-old son and a judge found that Khawam "has extreme personal deficits in the areas of honesty and integrity."
