Probe into Yoon couple's 2022 influence-peddling intensifies
The team on Monday conducted a search and seizure at the home and office of Rep. Lee Jun-seok, who is now leader of the minor opposition Reform Party and was chair of the conservative People Power Party during the 2022 poll in which local elections and by-elections for empty parliamentary seats took place simultaneously.
The investigation centers on claims that Yoon and his wife, through self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun, influenced the nomination of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, a member of the then-ruling People Power Party, for a by-election in June 2022 in exchange for Myung fabricating support for Yoon in polls when Yoon was running for president.
According to the special counsel, Lee is considered a reference in the ongoing probe. Investigators are expected to review his role in a meeting on Feb. 29, 2024, at Chilbulsa Temple in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, where Myung, Kim Young-sun, Reform Party floor leader Rep. Chun Ha-ram and Lee were present.
The meeting took place after Kim failed to secure the nomination of the People Power Party in the 2024 general election, in contrast to 2022, when she was nominated and ran in the by-election. The Reform Party leadership later rejected a request from Kim to nominate her.
The raid came just one day after Lee was elected as the new head of the Reform Party on Sunday. Lee criticized the timing of the operation, calling it "suspicious" during a YouTube interview with local broadcaster Channel A.
Lee pointed to the change in administration from former President Yoon, who was impeached and removed from office, to President Lee Jae Myung, who was elected in June to replace him.
"I already clearly stated what I did and didn't say," he said, referring to his questioning by prosecutors last November. "Now that the investigative body has changed, maybe they want to verify more."
Earlier on Monday, the Reform Party canceled its scheduled leadership meeting, denouncing the raid as politically motivated.
"We cannot shake off the suspicion that this was a media stunt aimed at humiliating us," Chun said during a press briefing at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul.
Chun stressed that the party had fully cooperated with investigators, adding that the raid on a lawmaker's office was excessive as the case involves matters that took place prior to Lee's election to the National Assembly in April 2022.
Meanwhile, a separate case added further complexity to the situation.
Choi Ho, a former Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly member and 2022 Pyeongtaek mayoral candidate, was found dead early Sunday in a mountainous area in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
Choi had been questioned in April as a witness in the probe into allegations that the Yoon couple intervened in the People Power Party's nomination process to make him a candidate without a primary in the 2022 local election. Choi, who ran for mayor of Pyeongtaek as a candidate of the People Power Party, lost the election.
The special counsel said it had no direct contact with Choi in relation to the ongoing investigation.
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