"Truth Will Be Revealed" Ha Tae-kyung Wins Lawsuit to Disclose Investigation Data on 'President's Son Favoritism Hiring Allegation'

"Completely Cleared of Charges After Six Months of Investigation"

Ha Tae-kyung, Member of the People Power Party / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Ha Tae-kyung, a member of the People Power Party, announced on the 4th that he won a lawsuit requesting disclosure of investigation materials regarding the preferential hiring allegations of Moon Joon-yong, son of President Moon Jae-in.

In a post on his Facebook on the same day, Rep. Ha said, "I raised concerns about the preferential hiring allegations of the son of then-presidential candidate Moon during the last presidential election," adding, "However, instead of answering the questions from the youth, the Democratic Party reported me to the prosecution, accusing me of spreading false information."

He continued, "After a six-month investigation, the prosecution completely cleared me of the charges," emphasizing, "The suspicion I raised was judged to be 'based on reasonable inference grounded on multiple credible materials.'"

He also explained, "At that time, the prosecution thoroughly investigated the hiring process of Joon-yong," adding, "They summoned all six officials from the Korea Employment Information Service related to Joon-yong’s hiring process and took their statements. Later, I found out that over 1,000 pages of investigation materials were preserved."

Rep. Ha claimed, "I filed an information disclosure lawsuit requesting the release of 10 statements from the hiring officers, which could be key evidence, and today the court ruled in my favor," asserting, "The day the truth is revealed is not far off."

Meanwhile, the Seoul Administrative Court’s Administrative Division 11 (Chief Judge Park Hyung-soon) ruled partially in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by Rep. Ha against the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office to cancel the refusal of information disclosure on the same day.

The court ordered that all requested information be disclosed except for parts containing some personal information.

Earlier, in April 2017, ahead of the presidential election, Rep. Ha claimed to have obtained the final audit report from the Ministry of Labor’s audit of the Korea Employment Information Service regarding the preferential hiring allegations of President Moon’s son, Joon-yong.

According to Rep. Ha, the report contained evidence of preferential hiring allegations, including the admission notification document for Joon-yong from Parsons School of Design in the United States, and emails exchanged between Joon-yong and the school regarding deferral of enrollment and leave of absence.

However, the Democratic Party accused Rep. Ha of publishing false information with the intent to defeat then-presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and reported him to the prosecution. The prosecution, however, decided not to indict him in November of the same year.

Subsequently, Rep. Ha requested disclosure of the judgment materials recorded in the prosecution’s non-indictment decision, but the prosecution refused, citing that the materials contained personal information and that related parties did not want the information disclosed. Rep. Ha then filed a lawsuit and won in all three trials.