One of the first indications in “Serial” that something was not quite right with the murder case against Maryland teen Adnan Syed came with the so-called Asia Letters: In 1999, Asia McClain wrote Adnan an affidavit swearing that she was with him in a library at the time his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee was murdered. Then, in one of the podcast’s earliest twists, listeners learned that McClain had later recanted her testimony, telling prosecutor Kevin Urick that she only gave Adnan an alibi under pressure from his family.

Now, as Adnan’s real-life appeal hinges on the question of whether or not his attorney should have investigated the alibi more fully, the story of the Asia Letters has only gotten more complex: McClain now tells the Blaze that she never recanted her testimony and never told Urick she had been forced to give Adnan an alibi. “I did not write the March 1999 letters or the affidavit because of pressure from Syed’s family,” McClain swears in a new affidavit. “I did not write them to please Syed’s family or to get them off my back. What actually happened is that I wrote the affidavit because I wanted to provide the truth about what I remembered. My only goal has always been to provide the truth about what I remembered.” For his part, Urick tells the Blaze that McClain’s new assertions are “absolutely false.”