A woman carrying two Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to US Secret Service agents and briefly gained admission to US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit, federal prosecutors alleged in court documents.
Zhang Yujing (張玉靜), 32, approached a Secret Service agent at a checkpoint outside the Palm Beach club early Saturday afternoon and said that she was a member who wanted to use the pool, court documents said.
She showed the passports as identification.
Agents said she was not on the membership list, but a club manager thought Zhang was the daughter of a member.
Agents said that when they asked Zhang if the member was her father, she did not answer definitively, but they thought it might be a language barrier and admitted her.
Zhang’s story changed when she got inside, agents said, as she told a front desk receptionist that she was there to attend a UN Chinese American Association event scheduled for that evening.
No such event was scheduled and agents were summoned.
Agent Samuel Ivanovich wrote in court documents that Zhang told him that she was there for the Chinese-American event and had come early to familiarize herself with the club and take photographs, again contradicting what she had said at the checkpoint.
She showed him an invitation in Chinese that he could not read.
He said Zhang was taken off the grounds and told that she could not be there.
She became argumentative, so she was taken to the local Secret Service office for questioning, Ivanovich said.
There it became clear that Zhang speaks and reads English well, he said.
Zhang said she had traveled from Shanghai to attend the nonexistent event on the invitation of an acquaintance named “Charles,” whom she only knew through a Chinese social media app, Ivanovich said.
She then denied telling the checkpoint agents she was a member wanting to swim, he said.
Zhang carried four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing computer malware, Ivanovich said.
She did not have a swimsuit.
“While the Secret Service does not determine who is permitted to enter the club, our agents and officers conduct physical screenings to ensure no prohibited items are allowed onto the property,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement.
“This access does not afford an individual proximity to the president or other Secret Service protectees. In such instances, additional screening and security measures are employed,” they said.
Zhang is charged with making false statements to federal agents and illegally entering a restricted area.
She remains in custody pending a hearing next week.
Her public defender, Robert Adler, declined comment.
There is no indication that Zhang was ever near the US president.
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