The investigation ran on three tracks: newsrooms, impeachment and criminal special prosecutors.
Steps below are what those bodies did after the tablet stories, not how to run a secret influence channel.
Agencies
- JTBC and Korean print desks — Broke and expanded the 2016 access-and-foundations story that made denial unsustainable.
- National Assembly — Passed impeachment on 9 December 2016, suspending the president.
- Constitutional Court of Korea — Heard the impeachment trial and removed Park on 10 March 2017.
- Special prosecutors / Seoul courts — Indicted and tried Park, Choi and chaebol figures on criminal charges in 2017–18.
What followed
- Publish the access file
JTBC and others put Choi's role in speeches and fundraising on air. Street protest followed the journalism, not the other way around.
- Fill Gwanghwamun on Saturdays
Candlelight crowds created the political climate in which Assembly members would vote. They did not replace the vote.
- Impeach in the Assembly
The 9 December 2016 motion suspended Park and sent a constitutional case to the Court.
- Try the impeachment
The Constitutional Court took evidence and, on 10 March 2017, removed the president unanimously.
- Prosecute the criminal case
Special prosecutors built bribery and coercion files distinct from the impeachment judgment.
- Sentence, appeal, pardon
2018 convictions and later clemency closed the personal liberty question without wiping the record.
Turning points
- The tablet week — Once speech drafts and a device were on television, the capture story could not be walked back as rumour.
- The 9 December vote — Parliament converted protest into a legal process the Court could finish.
- Unanimous 10 March — A full-bench removal made the civic result unambiguous in Korean and in English wires.
After the fact, journalists, legislators, justices and prosecutors each did a different job. Only the last two could convict.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.