President Park Geun-hye’s defense team Wednesday waged an all-out war against the Constitutional Court, calling it “biased” and even demanding the removal of one of its justices for “taking sides” with the parliament.

The court, which at one point warned Park’s lawyers to watch their language, rejected their requests for the exclusion of Justice Kang Il-won from the impeachment trial and additional hearings to question witnesses. It, however, did heed their call for more time to prepare for the final hearing, rescheduling it from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27.

“The Constitutional Court has been clearly in favor of the parliament during hearings. That will only lead to the self-destruction of the court,” said Kim Pyung-woo, a judge-turned-lawyer who recently joined Park’s defense team, during Wednesday’s hearing of Park‘s impeachment trial.

Kim even called Justice Kang Il-won -- who has served as lead justice during the impeachment trial -- a “head lawyer for the parliament,” condemning him for taking sides with the parliament, which voted to impeach the president over a corruption scandal in December.

The Constitutional Court reviewing the legality of Park’s impeachment expressed strong regret over such claims, asking Park’s lawyers to refrain from making “insulting” remarks to the court and to cooperate with the trial.

“Your remark crossed the line. Be careful with what you say. How dare you say that here?” acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi said.

Park’s lawyers even filed for a petition to exclude Justice Kang Il-won from the trial, which the court dismissed as “a clear attempt to delay the proceedings.”

“We filed for the petition to remove Justice Kang Il-won from the trial as he has proceeded in a high-handed manner and he could harm the fairness of the trial,” Park’s lawyers said, citing the restriction for Park’s defense rights and disapproval of their stance as reasons.

“We reject the request because the intention behind the petition is clearly to delay the proceedings,” acting Chief Justice Lee responded.

The provocative action is seen as Park’s defense team’s final shot at stalling the court proceedings amid growing expectation that the ruling on whether to unseat or reinstate the scandal-ridden president will be made in early March.

Park’s lawyers again asked for 20 witnesses including National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun and ex-Chief Justice Park Han-chul a day earlier. They claimed Park Han-chul had caused chaos among the public by calling for the verdict to be made before acting Justice Lee Jung-mi’s term ends on March 13 to prevent a “distorted” result.

They spent more than three hours in the courtroom taking issue with the procedure of the impeachment and the fairness of the trial, blasting the parliament for “abusing” the law to impeach the president.

President Park was impeached by the parliament on Dec. 9 over allegations that she let her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, who holds no government post, meddle in state affairs and colluded with her to extort donations from local conglomerates.

“The impeachment charges even include the ones some lawmakers were against. I ask for experts on the Constitution to be called in to testify in the courtroom,” Park’s lawyer Kim said, adding all the 13 charges in the impeachment motion should have been reviewed and voted on separately.

Kim referred to the president’s negligence of duty in protecting people’s lives during the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, which left more than 300 dead or missing. “Many lawmakers openly opposed the Sewol ferry incident in the impeachment motion. If it was voted on separately, it would have not been included in the motion.”

President Park has appeared to try to delay court proceedings, which critics see as an attempt to raise the chances of her avoiding being forced out of office. With the departure of Lee, she needs only two justices against the impeachment to maintain her position.

The court, which now has eight justices following the departure of ex-Chief Justice Park Han-chul on Jan. 31, has picked up pace with the proceedings, as it will soon have an additional vacancy, with acting Chief Justice Lee’s term ending on March 13.

The ruling to impeach Park needs approval from at least six of the current eight justices.

Earlier in the day, An Chong-bum, ex-presidential secretary for policy coordination, reiterated his claims that he had only followed an order from President Park in raising donations from local firms for the Mir and K-Sports foundations controlled by Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil.

An, who was brought in to testify last month, appeared again at the court as the very last witness for the historic impeachment trial. Choi, who also testified last month, was called to the hearing, but refused the summons, saying she has nothing more to testify.

An and Choi, key figures in the corruption scandal, are standing trial on charges of forcing some 50 local firms to donate a total of 77.4 billion won to the Mir and K-Sports foundations. President Park was named as an accomplice, one of the key reasons behind her impeachment.

An also said that the local firms had never been forced to make donations for the Mir and K-Sports foundations, saying the business lobby group Federation of Korean Industries actively participated in the fundraising campaign.

“I had closely consulted with the FKI Vice Chairman Lee Seung-cheol for the fundraising and he was very actively participating,” he said. “It was Lee who first came up with an idea to hide the presidential office’s involvement in the fundraising activities.”

Lee testified that the FKI had been under pressure from the presidential office to solicit corporate donations and the presidential office had forced him not to reveal its role in raising the donations.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)