Former Special Warfare Command Commander Kwak Jong-geun testified in a criminal trial and was interrogated for eight hours. In this trial at the Seoul Central District Court, all of Kwak Jong-geun's lies were shattered by the science of revealing phone records. 

Kwak Jong-geun testified at the Constitutional Court's impeachment hearing that President Yoon ordered the removal of lawmakers. He claimed that President Yoon said to break down doors if necessary and drag them out. Moon Hyung-bae, former acting chief justice of the Constitutional Court, who presided over President Yoon's impeachment trial, stated that Kwak Jong-geun's testimony was the most credible. However, when the phone records were examined, it turned out to be all fiction. The facts were overturned. 

The call between President Yoon and Kwak Jong-geun occurred at 12:31 AM. However, Kwak Jong-geun instructed Airborne Brigade Commander Lee Sang-hyun to remove lawmakers between 12:20 AM and 12:30 AM. The sequence of events was completely reversed. 

Kwak Jong-geun claimed he gave the order to remove lawmakers based on President Yoon's instructions. However, the call with President Yoon took place after Kwak Jong-geun had already issued the order to Lee Sang-hyun. This is evidence that Kwak Jong-geun issued the order unilaterally, without any involvement from President Yoon.

Kwak Jong-geun is writhing like a worm in the sun, trying to escape his contaminated testimony. He then made excuses, saying that Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo had conveyed such an order. However, the call between Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo and President Yoon also occurred after Kwak Jong-geun's call. The timeline is again inconsistent. 

Then, this time, he claimed that Minister Kim Yong-hyun called at 10:17 AM and said so. However, there is no record of a call at 10:17 AM. Kwak Jong-geun is now in a complete dead end.

Why did Kwak Jong-geun tell such lies? Anyone with any sense now knows it was due to the enticement of Kim Byung-joo and Park Sun-won. Colonel Kim Hyun-tae, commander of the 707th Special Mission Group, testified that Kwak Jong-geun was enticed by the Democratic Party and told that the party would protect him. 

On December 4th, Kwak Jong-geun called Airborne Brigade Commander Lee Sang-hyun and tearfully said that special measures needed to be taken. The suggestion was to declare his conscience. The implication was that if he didn't want to die as a traitor, he should frame President Yoon. 

Hong Jang-won's situation is even more absurd. The only basis for the claim that an arrest team was operational during the December 3rd martial law is Hong Jang-won's memo. However, the first memo does not exist. This so-called "worm memo," where he allegedly jotted down arrest names like Woo Won-shik, Lee Jae-myung, and Han Dong-hoon, received from Counterintelligence Commander Lee In-hyung, has no original. 

Hong Jang-won failed to submit the original to the Constitutional Court, and during the criminal trial, his lawyer asked him: "What kind of paper did you use to write the first memo?" Hong Jang-won could not answer for 14 seconds, stating he couldn't remember.

What's even more laughable is that Hong Jang-won was drunk when he wrote the first memo. It is said that his assistant transcribed the content from this drunken scribble. However, even that transcribed version has disappeared. 

According to Hong Jang-won, the assistant wrote a third memo on the afternoon of December 4th, relying on memory. Then, a fourth memo was created with circles drawn on it. There is no original or second version, only third and fourth processed versions remain. Yet, the Constitutional Court accepted this as evidence.

In 2023, former NIS Director Park Jie-won reprimanded Hong Jang-won at the National Assembly, saying, "You requested personnel appointments through people seven times during the Moon Jae-in administration." 

Hong Jang-won has something on Park Jie-won. There are even suspicions of embezzlement of funds for inter-Korean operations. What was the reason NIS Director Cho Tae-yong dismissed Hong Jang-won on December 6th? It was because on December 4th, Hong Jang-won told Cho Tae-yong to call Lee Jae-myung. This revealed his affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Hong Jang-won confessed on December 11th that he separately handed over the memo to Park Sun-won. The handwriting on the memo, which the Hankyoreh exclusively obtained, differs from Hong Jang-won's handwriting. It is highly likely that Park Sun-won and Kim Byung-ki tampered with it in the interim. 

Hong Jang-won and Kim Byung-gi are now busy attacking each other on Kim Eo-joon's show. Kim Byung-gi praised Hong Jang-won as "the best of the best." Two former NIS officials are putting on a show on a Democratic Party broadcast to destroy President Yoon.

The two pillars the Constitutional Court relied on for approving impeachment were Kwak Jong-geun and Hong Jang-won. However, Kwak Jong-geun was shattered by the release of phone records, and Hong Jang-won is spewing lies with a memo that lacks even an original. This is the reality of the impeachment. 

The impeachment is clearly null and void. We must put an end to this dirty fraud through a retrial request and restore President Yoon's honor.

Editorial Department, Hani Daily