It has been confirmed that during prosecution questioning, the secretary to the former Minister of Food and Drug Safety stated regarding nominee for Minister of Justice Kim Seung-won's request to the then-minister for the expedited processing of pharmaceutical firm Genencell's COVID-19 treatment clinical trials, "There were no requests from lawmakers other than lawmaker Kim Seung-won."

Regarding the text message sent by nominee Kim, the secretary stated, "It is clearly a message asking for a favor."

According to the legal community and other sources, official A, who served as the secretary to then-Minister of Food and Drug Safety Kim Gang-lip, reportedly answered in a 2023 prosecution witness reference investigation when asked if lawmakers frequently contacted the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety with favors, "To the best of my memory, there were none other than lawmaker Kim Seung-won."

At issue is a text message sent by nominee Kim to former Minister Kim's work mobile phone on October 12, 2021.

Nominee Kim wrote, "Please ask the working-level staff to handle this a bit quickly. The company is Genencell. I mentioned this because I am also concerned about the drain of national wealth."

This message was forwarded 18 minutes later through secretary A to former Minister Kim's personal mobile phone, and was subsequently passed on to the working-level staff at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in charge of clinical trials.

A stated that they also sent a message to the division head in charge, saying, "Lawmaker Kim Seung-won sent a text message separately," and conveying former Minister Kim's instructions to "look into it, but make sure that such talk doesn't come from their side from now on."

The prosecution regarded this as circumstances indicating that former Minister Kim instructed his secretary to forward nominee Kim's message to the relevant department.

Secretary A explained the situation in more detail during the prosecution investigation, stating, "It is clear that the message sent by the lawmaker is a request for a favor," adding, "Because it contains nonsense such as being 'concerned about the drain of national wealth.'"

However, regarding the exact instructions given by former Minister Kim at the time, A answered, "I do not remember."

On the same day, former Minister Kim sent a reply to nominee Kim stating, "Regarding the Genencell matter you expressed concern over, we are currently supplementing data and proceeding with the company. I have passed it on to the working-level staff to take good care of it."

Two weeks after nominee Kim sent the text message, on October 26, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Genencell's clinical trial plan for its COVID-19 treatment.

(Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by IYOO | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)