Prosecutors' Office Raids Supreme Prosecutors' Office... Securing Materials on 'Lee Jeong-seop Secret Leak'

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (Chief Prosecutor Cha Jeong-hyun) sent investigative personnel to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 21st to conduct a search and seizure. This is related to allegations of public official secret leakage against Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office. It is reported that through this search and seizure, the Corruption Investigation Office will secure records such as the messenger send and receive logs within the prosecution of Prosecutor Lee stored on the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Information and Communications Department server, as well as Prosecutor A's criminal record inquiry logs.

Prosecutor Lee is suspected of having asked junior Prosecutor A to inquire about the criminal records of individuals who were not subjects of investigation. The Corruption Investigation Office suspects that Prosecutor Lee attempted to check the criminal records of a specific person at the personal request of his brother-in-law. Earlier, the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Seung-ho) indicted Prosecutor Lee without detention on charges of violating the Resident Registration Act, the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, and the Electronic Criminal Procedure Act on the 6th, and transferred the case regarding the public official secret leakage related to criminal record inquiries to the Corruption Investigation Office.

On the same day, the Corruption Investigation Office investigated Kang Mi-jeong, spokesperson of the Party for Justice and Innovation and the whistleblower who is also the wife of Prosecutor Lee's brother-in-law, as a witness related to the case. When entering the Corruption Investigation Office's Government Gwacheon Building, Kang responded to reporters' questions asking, "This is your first investigation by the Corruption Investigation Office in a year since April last year; do you think the case disposition has been delayed?" by saying, "I understand that Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop and his spouse have also been investigated by the prosecution, but it is regrettable that the prosecution transferred the case to the Corruption Investigation Office just before the statute of limitations expired."

Spokesperson Kang had previously voluntarily submitted her mobile phone to the Corruption Investigation Office. She claimed that it contained message logs indicating circumstances where Prosecutor Lee checked and informed about the criminal records of housekeepers and golf course staff.