Trump-linked American facing defamation trial over incendiary comments about South Korean president

SEOUL, South Korea — A former Trump administration diplomat charged with defaming the South Korean president during a speech in Washington has been told he cannot leave the country pending the outcome of the case.

Morse Tan, 52, who served in the first Trump administration as an ambassador-at-large, faces charges under South Korea’s strict anti-defamation laws after being accused of alleging, in a June 2025 press conference in Washington, that President Lee Jae-myung, 62, was involved as a teen in a murder subsequently hidden from the public.

Officials originally summoned Mr. Tan for questioning after the former dean of Virginia’s Liberty University Law School arrived in South Korea in May to monitor elections, before indicting the Korean American on July 16. A Seoul judge — citing concerns that Mr. Tan would leave for the U.S. and not return to South Korea for trial — on Friday rejected Mr. Tan’s request to lift a court-ordered travel ban, and he is scheduled to return to court in September.

The conservative former law professor’s activism — he regularly visits South Korea for speeches to Protestant congregations and rallies of supporters of imprisoned ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol — has taken place during recent political upheaval in the U.S. ally.

Mr. Yoon, a staunch anti-communist and defense hawk, derailed his political career in December 2024 with a short-lived declaration of martial law that included dispatching commandos in an unsuccessful bid to take control of both the opposition-controlled National Assembly and the National Election Commission — institutions the then-president reportedly suspected had been compromised by China or other foreign influence.

Recalling decades of authoritarian rule, furious citizens and lawmakers rallied and martial law was withdrawn within hours. Mr. Yoon was impeached and Mr. Lee — the leader of South Korea’s liberal party — filled the power vacuum, winning the June 2025 presidential election.

Mr. Yoon is now serving a life sentence for treason.

Though most South Koreans accept Mr. Lee’s election win — the outcome was widely predicted by polls — a conservative minority resists, though rallies have dwindled in recent months.

In a recent interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Tan said his criticism of the Lee administration is based on what he sees as dangerous fractures in the longtime alliance between Washington and Seoul.

“In terms of my key interest, I am concerned about the Korean-American alliance,” he said. “I am concerned about the people of both countries.”

He admits his primary contention, that free and democratic South Korea is now embracing communism, “looks insane.” But “Korea is in a rapid process of communization. … You have an emerging dictatorship here.”

He said South Korea is under attack by “a full-blown hybrid war by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Lawmakers and judges are targets. “Part of hybrid war is elite capture,” he said. “Typically by bribery, threats and blackmail — that is generally how they approach things.”

Mr. Lee and his Democratic Party of Korea hold the National Assembly and the presidency, South Korea’s two political power centers. But concerns about unfair election practices exploded after 91 polling stations, largely in opposition constituencies, reported ballot shortages in the June elections that Mr. Tan was in South Korea to monitor.

Mr. Tan also cited concerns over freedom of expression and of religion.

A new law aimed at banning the dissemination of fake news was passed on July 7, drawing the ire of free speech and press freedom advocates.

Pending legislation, dubbed colloquially the “Church Dissolution Act,” could enable oversight of pastors and abolition of religious institutions.

Mr. Tan faces a potential prison term for his comments in Washington, saying that Mr. Lee, as a middle school student, was involved in a rape and murder near Andong Dam, southeast of Seoul.

The allegations against Mr. Lee, which predate Mr. Tan’s remarks, have been investigated by fact-checkers and dismissed as false.

Mr. Tan said he did not accuse the South Korean president, and he was repeating allegations made by others in response to a question at the National Press Club in Washington in June 2025.

“For any U.S. citizen to make a statement on U.S. soil about a public figure — that is within the core of the First Amendment under the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “For a Korean court to claim jurisdiction is completely wrong.”

He argued that, “by the same logic,” any South Korean who made anti-Trump comments in South Korea could be prosecuted while visiting the U.S.

Contrary to local reports that he refused a police summons, Mr. Tan said he attended but maintained his right to silence.

Sensationally, Mr. Tan says he has “material, documentary, testimonial and circumstantial evidence” of the alleged murder, and if he ends up in court, “My attorneys and I would plan to make the case that evidence points to this actually occurring.”

Mr. Lee, for his part, has stayed above the brouhaha. A spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea did not respond to questions on the matter.

Ironically, the defamation case against Mr. Tan was brought by a conservative group, the Free Korea Patriotic Corps, which told Yonhap News it aims to “safeguard national dignity.”

It is not alone in critiquing Mr. Tan and his allies.

“These are limited voices, but they have a certain influence over the hardcore right wing, and they are trying to build transnational conservative coalitions,” said Moon Chung-in, a prominent academic and adviser to past liberal governments in Seoul. “Lots of folk in South Korea are concerned.”

Mr. Moon stands squarely in South Korea’s progressive camp, but even some conservatives worry that it is Mr. Tan and his backers among U.S. conservatives who are poisoning the alliance — not Mr. Lee.

“Morse has been an eloquent advocate for Christian pastors’ freedom of speech and for election integrity,” said David Linton, a Seoul-based American lawyer whose family first came to South Korea in the late 19th century. “It is regrettable that this case now threatens to overshadow his contributions in these areas.”

The head of a civic group that advocates for the alliance is more scathing.

“If a foreigner comes and criticizes the people or government, I think Korea has a resistance to that,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

“As a conservative, I don’t need him,” the person, who held high rank in the South Korean army, continued. “Far-right extremists will support him, but moderate conservatives … cannot believe his plot.”

Mr. Tan, however, said he is sticking to his guns.

“I am doing this out of a sense of calling,” he told The Times. “I knew there was a risk.”