NORRISTOWN -- Bruce Beemer initially assumed the secret grand jury materials leaked to the Philadelphia Daily News came from a source inside the attorney general's satellite office in Norristown.

That changed after several heated exchanges the former aide had with Kathleen Kane herself in the months following an article detailing the defunct 2009 probe of former Philadelphia NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire.

"You know, Bruce, if I get taken out of here in handcuffs, what do you think my last act will be?" Beemer recalled the attorney general telling him in an October 2014 conversation, as a grand jury was in the midst of investigating Kane.

The veteran prosecutor testified during Kane's criminal trial on Wednesday that his boss' reluctance to investigate the leak and her cryptic remark forced him to reassess the situation.

When asked by prosecutor Michelle Henry about whether, following that exchange and others, he still thought Norristown was the source of the leak, he replied: "I feared that it was not."

Earlier in 2014, Beemer -- who was chief of the office's criminal prosecution section at the time -- had discussed the Mondesire case in a meeting with two other AG's office staffers, Michael Miletto and David Peifer. Material from a 2009 memo he was shown at the meeting and from a transcribed interview between Miletto and Peifer appeared months later in the Daily News.

On June 6, 2014, the day the article appeared, Beemer testified that he called Kane on his lunch break to tell her that it was clear the material had come from the office and that he wanted permission to investigate the source.

Her response, according to Beemer, was: "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. We have more important things to do."

In his handwritten notes about the day's events, which were entered in as evidence Wednesday, he wrote: "Isn't this a GJ leak??"

Kane's criminal prosecutors allege that she orchestrated the Mondesire leak as a response to a prior Philadelphia Inquirer report about a legislative sting the attorney general shut down. Kane, they argue, assumed her rivals -- and specifically Frank Fina -- leaked the sting information, arranged one of her own and then lied about it.

At the time, however, Beemer did not suspect Kane herself.

"I was convinced it came out of the Norristown office," he recalled. "We had some issues and problems with the office down there and I thought we have to get this under control."

Former First Deputy AG Bruce Beemer

Beemer, who now serves as inspector general, was not asked to elaborate on what those issues were, but he noted that Miletto, a special agent, worked out of the Norristown office.

Later that summer, it became clear that a supervising judge had appointed a special prosecutor to assist with a grand jury investigation of the leak. Beemer took it upon himself, without Kane's instruction, to pledge the office's cooperation.

"I was relieved, to be perfectly candid about it," he recalled. "I was convinced the leak had to have come out of our office and I thought it would have been difficult for us to conduct our own inquiry into it."

On July 28, 2014, the attorney general called her aide during his lunch break and the pair discussed the Daily News article and the leak probe in a 44-minute conversation. He left his colleagues -- and his half-eaten meal -- at MoMo's restaurant in Harrisburg and carried on the conversation in a nearby alley.

Kane asked Beemer to "try to file something," either in the state Supreme Court or with the supervising grand jury judge, to challenge the leak investigation.

"My heart sank a little," Beemer said, adding: "I had been operating under the belief that this was the right course of action that we really should get to the bottom of all of this."

During that phone call, Beemer said his boss went item by item, saying she didn't believe the material was covered by grand jury secrecy. In his mind, Beemer thought his boss was reading directly from the 2009 memo, although under cross examination by Kane counsel, he admitted he did not know for sure.

Kane also raised the issue that the possible leaker may not have signed a grand jury secrecy oath for the 2009 grand jury that investigated Mondesire, according to Beemer. The aide, however, said he didn't think that mattered.

"It's really irrelevant whether somebody has actually signed the oath if they are inside the office," Beemer said. "If somebody's within a position in the criminal division with access to this material and they haven't signed a grand jury oath . . . it doesn't change the fact that you cannot disclose that information."

By the end of the conversation, the aide had grown frustrated.

"Quite frankly, general," Beemer recalled saying. "I would think you'd want to know who in your office released this information and I can't understand why you wouldn't want that information."

Kane's response, according to Beemer: "O.K., well, fine, stay on top of it and keep me apprised of what's going on."

From the defense table, Kane remained firmly planted in her seat during Beemer's testimony, her left hand held upright against the table, gripping a pen.

Beemer said he had no doubt that material in the Daily News article was covered by grand jury secrecy laws. Its release was problematic because no charges had been handed down in the case.

Several months later, in October, Beemer and Kane were once again discussing possible responses to the leak investigation. After a "back and forth" between the two, Kane issued her cryptic statement: "You know, Bruce, if I get taken out of here in handcuffs, what do you think my last act will be?"

That remark concerned Beemer.

"I knew she was unhappy with me," he testified Wednesday, but he was more concerned for the other prosecutors who agreed with his perspective on the situation. "I was concerned about it, but we moved on."

Beemer would later get a call from Wanda Scheib, the secretary who brought the secrecy oaths Kane signed to the attention of prosecutors. After meeting in person, Beemer brought the content of their discussion to the attention of Kevin Steele, the lead prosecutor in the Kane criminal case and now the Montgomery County district attorney.

READ MORE: Live coverage from Kane trial Day 3

According to prosecutors, the oaths that Scheib brought to Beemer's attention contradicted Kane's prior testimony under oath that she hadn't signed an oath for the materials that were the subject of the alleged leaks. That, in turn, formed the basis for one of the perjury charges against Kane.

In his cross-examination, Kane attorney Douglas Rosenblum asked about the limits of an attorney's responsibility to protect grand jury secrecy. He showed a screenshot of a press conference in which Kane discussed the legislative sting, with Beemer standing -- his face emotionless -- behind his boss.

"You didn't pull her off the stage and shout . . . 'Stop! Stop!'?" The defense attorney asked.

Beemer replied: "I don't think anybody can stop the attorney general from doing what she wants to do."