NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane worked directly with a political consultant to concoct a plan to cover up an illegal grand jury leak and pin the blame on her former aide.
This according to Josh Morrow, a former adviser who testified Thursday that the attorney general directed him to lie to a grand jury in order to protect her.
"We had conspired to create this story which wasn't true," Morrow said during the third day of testimony at Kathleen Kane's perjury trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown.
According to Morrow's testimony, he and Kane were looking to get back at former deputy attorney general Frank Fina after they believed he was responsible for a negative article in the Philadelphia Inquirer in March 2014.
On April 22 of that year, Morrow said Kane instructed him to contact her first deputy Adrian King and pick up documents from him. Morrow then called a friend, fellow political advisor John Lisko, later that night.
However, unbeknownst to Lisko and Morrow, Lisko was having his phone wiretapped by the FBI, and it recorded an 18 minute conversation in which Morrow said, "Kathleen called me to say Adrian's gonna give me documents to leak out."
A portion of the phone call was played for jurors.
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry showed Morrow and jurors a string of text messages between Morrow and Kane over the next few months discussing an article Kane was expecting in the Philadelphia Daily News, using information from the grand jury supplied by Morrow.
In August 2014, Morrow and Kane met to corroborate their stories when it became apparent the Attorney General's office was being investigated for the source of the grand jury leaks. The two were to meet at a restaurant in Philadelphia. However, before meeting, Morrow says he was picked up by Kane's confidant Patrick Reese and taken to a parking garage. He testified that, while there, Reese took his cell phone, house keys, and wallet and proceeded to search him for a recording device. When none was found, Morrow said Reese took him to lunch where he and Kane devised a plan to blame the leaks on Adrian King.
Morrow says when he testified to the Grand Jury twice in November 2014, he lied under oath in order to protect Kathleen Kane.
Eventually, Morrow said, "The lie was starting to unravel" and he says he felt burdened by it. Last month, he came forward to Montgomery County prosecutors and provided text messages he kept with Kane.
"It's very embarrassing to me," Morrow said. "It's been hurtful to my career. Hurtful to my relationship (with his fiancee). But I was given a chance to tell the truth."
Morrow was granted immunity for his testimony Thursday.