Minister Jo Won-cheol of the Korea Legislation Research Institute said on the 3rd that allegations that President Lee Jae-myung was involved in corruption in the Daejang-dong development project were "clearly not true."
Appearing on the YouTube channel "Jang Yoon-seon's Reporting Convenience Store," which was released that day, Minister Jo took a related question and began by saying, "This comes from my past experience as defense counsel, and there may be criticism over whether this is something I should say as Minister."
He added, "(The president) has never met the Daejang-dong group even once and has not taken a single penny in bribes, so claims that he was to receive hundreds of billions in bribes or equity, as we see it, are far-fetched."
Regarding Seoul High Court Chief Judge Kim Dae-ung's remarks at the parliamentary audit that resuming the president's trial was "theoretically possible," he said, "When we use the phrase 'theoretically possible' in everyday life, doesn't it usually mean that it's not realistically possible?"
Minister Jo said, "I think the use of the term 'theoretical' was meant in the sense that such an interpretation exists," adding, "I don't think he was speaking as if that were the court's position."
Meanwhile, Minister Jo, a former judge, is a classmate of the 18th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute with the president and was appointed the first Minister of Legislation under the Lee Jae-myung administration. Minister Jo served as defense counsel in the trials over the Daejang-dong, Baekhyeon-dong, and Wirye development corruption allegations and the Seongnam FC allegations involving the president.