On October 24, 2016, the JTBC broadcaster reported a scoop that a private citizen named Choi Seo-won (Choi Soon-sil) had intervened in state affairs behind President Park Geun-hye's back. As evidence, they brought up a mobile device dubbed the "Choi Soon-sil Tablet PC."

At the time, prosecutors claimed that they had received the "Choi Soon-sil Tablet PC" from the JTBC broadcasting company just before they aired the scoop. The prosecution subsequently officialized all JTBC's reports as being valid. This "Choi Soon-sil Tablet PC" was used as core physical evidence in President Park Geun-hye's trial on charges of leaking official secrets.

When prosecutors announced the results of their investigation to the effect that the president had passed state secrets to a private citizen, a serious controversy over Park’s qualifications as a leader ensued. President Park was eventually impeached only five months after JTBC reported the "Choi Soon-sil Tablet PC” scoop.

The following summarized in chronological order Yoon Seok-yeol and Han Dong-hoon's roles in the "Choi Soon-sil Tablet" evidence tampering and cover-up.