President Yoon Suk Yeol’s defense team says it was able to confirm that there were anomalies regarding the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials(CIO)’s warrant requests against Yoon.

In an emergency news conference held on Friday, Yoon Kap-keun, one of the president’s lawyers, told reporters that the CIO had initially attempted to obtain several warrants against Yoon from the Seoul Central District Court but was rejected three times.

The defense team found that the central court had dismissed on December 6 a search and seizure warrant as well as a communications data warrant while rejecting a search and seizure warrant two days later. 

The lawyer said that this prompted the Office to go shopping for a court that would issue an arrest warrant and ended up requesting the Seoul Western District Court, which lacks jurisdiction, for an arrest warrant against Yoon.

The legal representative said the anti-corruption agency had lied when it informed ruling People Power Party Rep. Joo Jin-woo in a written inquiry that it had never requested warrants regarding Yoon to the Seoul Central District Court. 

The defense team said it will immediately seek to file a complaint against the related CIO officials before stressing the need for the court to revoke Yoon’s detention and release him.