President Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal team has renewed the "warrant shopping" accusations against the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
 
Yoon's attorney Yoon Kap-keun told reporters Friday the CIO chose the Seoul Western District Court to request an arrest warrant for the president after its other warrant requests were rejected by the Seoul Central District Court.

The attorney said that his team was able to confirm three failed warrant requests against Yoon filed at the Seoul Central District Court after reviewing some 70-thousand pages of investigative records on the president.

According to the attorney, 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 CIO 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 the arrest warrant against Yoon.

The CIO filed its request for search and arrest warrants for Yoon with the Seoul Western District Court on December 30, sparking debate over the court's jurisdiction.

The CIO promptly responded the accusation, claiming that various court proceedings have confirmed that there is no issue regarding the court's jurisdiction or its investigative authority.