The Chinese woman who breached security at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort left a hidden-camera detection device and more than $8,000 in her hotel room, a federal prosecutor said Monday.
Yujing Zhang is charged with lying to a federal officer and entering restricted property, the Palm Beach estate, on March 30. But the government is not alleging Zhang, 32, is a spy, prosecutor Rolando Garcia told a federal magistrate judge on Monday.
Still, Zhang has not been truthful in her answers to questions from American law enforcement, Garcia said.
“She tells lies to everyone she encounters,” he said.
Zhang’s arrest has raised questions about security at the Palm Beach resort, which is a private club and also the president’s “Winter White House.”
Law enforcement reported Zhang was carrying four cellphones, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing “malicious malware” when she entered Mar-a-Lago. President Donald Trump was not on the property at the time. Federal officials are looking into whether the incursion was part of a larger effort to gain access to the president and do potential harm.
Zhang attended her pretrial detention hearing in West Palm Beach on Monday. Wearing a blue jail uniform and handcuffs, she took notes throughout the hearing and was able to say, “Yes, I understand,” when Judge William Matthewman asked if she understood what was happening in the courtroom.
Zhang’s visa from the U.S. State Department has been revoked, Garcia said. If she were released, she would enter the custody of immigration officials, he said.
Matthewman decided that Zhang’s pretrial detention hearing would resume on April 15, when she also would be arraigned. Her federal public defender, Robert Adler, requested the extension to next week because he said Zhang needs more time to have someone from China offer collateral for a bond for her release and help her find housing before a trial.
Adler said there were several problems with the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of Zhang’s arrest, including not having a recording of her interview and not having a translator until about two hours into the four-hour conversation.
He said Zhang had planned to attend a United Nations Chinese-American friendship event, and he showed a $20,000 wire transfer Zhang made in February as proof of her sincere effort to attend the gathering she thought was taking place at Mar-a-Lago.
Adler said the answers government officials interpret as lies may have resulted from language barrier issues. A translator relayed Monday’s proceedings to Zhang in Mandarin.
When Zhang appeared at the club on March 30, she said she wanted to use the pool and was allowed past a Secret Service checkpoint, court documents show.
Mar-a-Lago staff believed she was related to a club member with the same last name. Zhang told a receptionist she had been invited to a “United Nations Friendship Event” on the property, but the gathering was not on the club’s social calendar.
The receptionist alerted law enforcement.
Garcia said Zhang arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport from Shanghai on March 28 on a tourist visa that has since been revoked.
Zhang told law enforcement she carried so many electronic devices into Mar-a-Lago because she didn’t want to leave them in her hotel room.
But when officers went into Zhang’s room at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, they found $7,620.11 in American currency and $663 in Chinese money. She also left credit and debit cards, a signal detector for hidden cameras, nine USB drives and five SIM cards in the room, Garcia said.
“Based on all the lies she’s told to folks she encounters and the fact she has zero ties to the United States of America,” Garcia urged the judge to detain Zhang before her trial.
But Adler said Zhang never lied about what she was trying to do at Mar-a-Lago.
He said there is no recording of her saying she wanted to go to the pool or of her conversations with a resort employee who drove her in a golf cart or the receptionist who stopped her. He said she carried a legitimate passport and visa.
He said she never claimed to be a member of Mar-a-Lago and showed a real invitation, albeit in Chinese, to attend the friendship event. She arrived a few hours before the event to take photos and get familiar with the resort, he said.
“The government has no reason to believe Ms. Zhang was a spy,” Adler said.
He said she paid the $20,000 to a friendship association connected with Charles Lee, who Adler said piggybacked on events promoted by Li “Cindy” Yang, the Chinese native, Republican donor and former Florida massage parlor owner. She made news after it was learned she was promising Chinese business leaders that her consulting firm could get them access to Mar-a-Lago where they could mingle with the president.
Yang had promoted an event at Mar-a-Lago on March 30, the day Zhang appeared. But the event had been canceled.
Zhang will remain in Palm Beach County jail, at least through Monday. The charge of false statements to a federal officer can be punished with a prison term of up to five years, while the charge of entering or remaining on restricted property can lead to one year in prison. If convicted, Zhang could be deported.
Lsolomon@sunsentinel.com