Attorney Kim So-yeon: "Lee Jun-seok Uses Myeong Tae-gyun as a Channel to Monitor Yoon"

Lee Jun-seok, Daily KakaoTalk with Myeong and Q&A Even at Dawn

Kim So-yeon, the legal representative of Myung Tae-gyun, a key figure in the suspicion of 'interference in candidate selection' involving President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, claimed that Lee Jun-seok, a reform party lawmaker and former ruling party leader, used Myung as a channel to grasp the intentions and movements of the President and his wife.

On the 18th, Kim stated this on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus,' saying, "Lawmaker Lee filled the candidate selection with personal interests," and added, "He even created a pretext for a strategic candidate selection public opinion poll to nominate someone he was close to. When the President said, 'Shouldn't there be a primary election?' Lee passed this information to Myung." It was alleged that Lee used Myung to call the President to protest or confirm his own intentions.

Regarding the relationship between Lee and Myung, Kim claimed, "They exchanged KakaoTalk messages daily and had Q&A sessions until dawn," and said, "It seems they used Myung as a channel to monitor the President and the First Lady." After several clashes with the President and the cessation of private exchanges, Myung was the only channel through which Lee could know who the First Lady met, what was said, and the President's intentions.

Assemblyman Lee Jun-seok. Photo by Yonhap News

Regarding the possibility of evidence destruction due to Myung making calls to Lee Jun-seok and Professor Ham Seong-duk using a prepaid phone, Kim confirmed, "It is true that a prepaid phone was used."

Kim explained that "because controversies related to Myung continued, an acquaintance confiscated the phone," and noted that prosecutors pointed out that Myung tried to align statements by calling Lee and Professor Ham Seong-duk of Kyonggi University using the prepaid phone.

Kim said, "The PPT slide seen during the substantive investigation showed the public opinion poll dated May 16, 2021, where Lee Jun-seok ranked first," and added that prosecutors suspect this poll was manipulated. She continued, "There is a KakaoTalk message where Lee said that after receiving the figures from an internal poll related to public opinion, he sent them to Professor Ham, who was then told to forward them to Representative Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party," and also quoted Lee saying, "I will talk to the Secretary-General about strategic candidate selection."

Whether the public opinion poll results were delivered to Representative Yoon (then the candidate selection committee chairman) has not been confirmed in the prosecution investigation. Kim described Professor Ham as "someone who continues to play a very important role, whether as a witness or otherwise," and conveyed that, according to Lee's expression, he acted as a proper broker.