The special counsel team investigating corruption allegations against former first lady Kim Keon-hee raided the residences and offices of Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the minor conservative Reform Party, Monday. 

The team, led by Min Joong-ki, sent prosecutors and investigators to Lee’s homes in Seoul’s Nowon District and Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, as well as to his National Assembly and district offices to secure documents and files from his computer. 

The special counsel is reported to have identified Lee as a suspect in wrongfully interfering in the People Power Party’s nomination process for the local elections and by-elections in 2022 when he was its chair, together with former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife. 

The former presidential couple is suspected of pressuring the People Power Party to nominate former Rep. Kim Young-sun as its candidate for a by-election in June 2022 in return for receiving free public opinion polls from power broker Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the presidential election the same year.

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun, who was chief of the party’s nomination committee for the local and by-elections, was questioned by the special counsel for almost 15 hours on Sunday over the same allegations.