Mar-a-Lago intruder Zhang Yujing’s trial off to rocky start with argument over underwear
- Defendant tells judge she wore prison garb instead of civilian clothes for jury selection because she didn’t have any undergarments
- Calling Zhang ‘obviously unprepared’, judge urges her to use public defender instead of representing herself in court
If jury selection for the Chinese businesswoman accused of trespassing at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is any indication, the trial of Zhang Yujing will be a bizarre affair that may not answer the central question on the public’s mind: Is Zhang a Chinese intelligence asset or a clumsy tourist who made the mistake of a lifetime?
The first argument of the day concerned Zhang’s outfit.
On Monday morning, Zhang appeared in a courtroom at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse in a brown inmate uniform.
She is representing herself despite a judge’s plea that she accept lawyers from the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and is facing a maximum of six years in prison on charges of entering restricted property and lying to a federal agent.
Seeing the underdressed defendant in court, US District Judge Roy Altman asked Zhang why she was not wearing her civilian clothes.
Zhang, speaking in Mandarin, told Altman that she did not have any “undergarments”, or underwear, such as a bra and panties, although in fact she had been provided with clothes she brought with her from China before her arrest.