Federal Prosecutors Say A Woman With Chinese Passports Illegally Entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
Federal prosecutors filed charges Monday against a woman carrying Chinese passports whom they allege illegally entered President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in late March.
The woman, Yujing Zhang, initially gained access to the property on March 30 through a miscommunication with members of Mar-a-Lago security, according to the complaint. Trump was staying at Mar-a-Lago on that date, though he was not on the property at the time Zhang’s alleged visit occurred.
After she was detained, US Secret Service agents searched multiple electronic devices she was carrying, including four cell phones, a laptop computer, an external “hard drive type” device and a thumb drive, and found that the thumb drive contained malicious malware, prosecutors say.
Once on the property, Zhang told a receptionist she was at the club to attend a United Nations Chinese American Association event, which the receptionist knew didn’t exist.
Agents removed Zhang from the Mar-a-Lago property and interviewed her. According to prosecutors, Zhang “claimed her Chinese friend ‘Charles’ told her to travel from Shanghai, China, to Palm Beach, Florida, to attend this event and attempt to speak with a member of the President’s family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations.”
Though agents attempted to elicit more information about “Charles,” Zhang claimed she had spoken to him only through WeChat, a messaging service that is popular in China.
