When the lawyer representing the woman at the center of a scandal engulfing South Korean President Park Geun-hye met his client upon her arrival in the country from Germany on Sunday morning, he was blunt.
"I told her: 'You are now all alone. No one will protect you, not even the Blue House,' " said Lee Kyung-jae, referring to South Korea's presidential compound.
Prosecutors have said they are looking into whether Lee's client, Choi Soon-sil, 60, used her friendship with Park to influence state affairs by gaining access to classified documents and benefited personally through nonprofit foundations.