[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, legal affairs specialist] On the 5th, the prosecution and the Democratic Party engaged in a battle of truth over the external hard drive seized from the home of Jeong Jin-sang, the Political Coordination Office Chief of the Democratic Party leader's office.
The issue originated from a report by Dong-A Ilbo the previous day.
Dong-A Ilbo reported in an exclusive article titled "[Exclusive] Prosecution Secures External Hard Drive During Search of Jeong Jin-sang’s Residence" that the prosecution (Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam Branch), investigating the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship fund' allegations, secured one external hard drive during a search of Jeong’s residence on September 16. However, since Jeong’s side did not provide the password, forensic attempts to decrypt it have been ongoing for over 40 days.
The report stated that the prosecution requested the password for the external hard drive, but Jeong’s side refused, citing the right to defense.
However, on the same day, the Democratic Party issued a statement completely denying these reports.
The Democratic Party’s Public Relations Department stated, "The external hard drive is an Apple-exclusive product, so forensic analysis was not possible at the seizure site. The prosecution initially seized the item and later conducted forensic analysis in the presence of Jeong’s side." They added, "As a result, it was revealed to be owned by Jeong’s son, and both parties confirmed this."
They continued, "Claims that the external hard drive belongs to Jeong or that the password was hidden preventing content verification are all false," criticizing, "This is a trick by the prosecution to make it appear as if there is non-cooperation or refusal to submit materials during the investigation."
Additionally, the Democratic Party also denied reports that Jeong received bribes in the form of holiday gifts from parties related to the Daejang-dong project, stating these claims are completely untrue.
After the Democratic Party’s rebuttal was reported by various media outlets, the prosecution sent a text message to the press corps in the afternoon to refute the Democratic Party’s position again, citing "to prevent misinformation."
The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam Branch prefaced, "Due to many inquiries and to prevent misinformation," and stated, "As this is an ongoing investigation, detailed information cannot be provided. However, during the forensic process of the 'external hard drive' seized from Jeong Jin-sang’s residence, it was confirmed that the device was password-protected. The prosecution confirmed with the defense attorney participating in the forensic procedure whether they would provide the password, but it was refused, causing significant delays in password decryption, and the file contents have not yet been confirmed."
The Seongnam Branch added, "Separately from the above 'external hard drive,' the 'laptop' claimed by Jeong’s side to be owned by his son was not separately seized at the search site," and "The prosecution has not disclosed any facts related to the suspect."
This can be seen as the prosecution fully rebutting the Democratic Party’s claims that ▲ Jeong did not refuse to provide the external hard drive password and ▲ the external hard drive belongs to Jeong’s son, not Jeong himself.
The Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations involve Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party leader, who was the club owner during his tenure as Seongnam mayor. Between 2016 and 2018, he secured sponsorship funds totaling over 16 billion KRW from companies such as Doosan Construction, Naver, and Cha Hospital. These companies allegedly received favors such as building permits and land use changes.
On September 30, the prosecution indicted former Doosan Construction CEO A and former Seongnam City Strategic Promotion Team leader B, who were involved in the allegations, listing Lee and Jeong, then the city policy chief, as accomplices in their complaints.
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