The onus is heavier than ever on the prosecutors investigating the Blue House document leak to conduct a fair and transparent investigation after a police officer allegedly implicated in the leak was found dead on Saturday. An autopsy showed that he had committed suicide.

The police officer left a lengthy suicide note in which he hinted that the Blue House had pressured his colleague, also implicated in the leak, to admit to the charges against him. The Blue House spokesperson refuted the allegation made in the note.

Earlier, the Seoul Central District Court had dismissed prosecutors’ filing of arrest warrants for the two police officers charging them with leaking the presidential document. “There is not enough reason to detain the two at the present stage considering that their crimes have not yet been sufficiently ascertained,” the judge said in his decision.

The prosecutors’ investigation into the Blue House document leak has focused on two areas: The veracity of the leaked document concerning alleged meetings between Blue House officials and Chung Yoon-hoi, a former aide of President Park Geun-hye, and how the document was leaked.

Park has repeatedly characterized the document as a mere collection of rumors and called the leak a grave breach. Her statements have been seen as a guideline of sorts for the prosecutors in their investigation.

The Blue House seemed to have issued yet another covert guideline when it turned over the results of its own internal audit into the leak to the prosecutors. According to the Blue House, a group of seven people, including former Blue House secretary Cho Eung-cheon, senior police officer Park Kwan-cheon who wrote the leaked document, and a close associate of Park Ji-man, President Park’s younger brother, were involved in the leak. Ji-man was questioned by the prosecutors Monday afternoon.

Park and the Blue House should have stayed quiet while the prosecutors’ investigation is underway. By repeatedly asserting that the leaked document contains only groundless rumors and that the leak was a bigger problem, Park has, even indirectly, influenced the investigation. The Blue House turning over its internal audit seems an outright attempt to intervene in the prosecutors’ investigation.

The prosecutors do not enjoy a reputation for independence and the apparent meddling by Park and the Blue House has put the prosecutors under close public scrutiny. The dismissal of arrest warrants for the two police officers implicated in the leak and the subsequent suicide by one of them has placed a heavy burden on the prosecutors to try harder at independence and transparency.