Chinese woman detained at Mar-a-Lago, Zhang Yujing, indicted on charges of lying and unlawful entry
- Nothing in the indictment refers to espionage, but a prosecutor told the judge the US continued to look into that possibility
A Chinese woman detained at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was indicted by a federal grand jury in Palm Beach County on charges of unlawful entry and making false statements.
Zhang Yujing was caught at the resort with four mobile phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing suspected malware. Trump was golfing nearby when Zhang was taken into custody.
Nothing in the indictment refers to possible espionage, which is in line with remarks made by prosecutor Rolando Garcia at Zhang’s detention hearing in West Palm Beach on Monday. But Garcia told the federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman that the US continued to look into that possibility.
The case has drawn scrutiny of security procedures at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s so-called winter White House.
The president regularly visits the property and conducts official business there, but it also operates as a private business dependent on traffic from members and special events.
Zhang’s lawyer, public defender Robert Adler, said at the Monday hearing that she had a legitimate reason to be at the property, planning to attend an event that had apparently been scheduled by later cancelled.
Zhang “well knew no such event was scheduled at Mar-a-Lago and its grounds,” prosecutors said in the indictment.
Adler also denied that Zhang explicitly misrepresented herself. She was apparently allowed into the club in part because her surname was the same as that of a club member.
But Adler said any inference that she was related to the other Zhang could have arisen from a misunderstanding. Zhang is a native Mandarin speaker, and hers is a very common name in China, the lawyer said.
The balance of Zhang’s detention hearing and her arraignment are scheduled for Monday in federal court in West Palm Beach.
