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A woman carrying Chinese passports was arrested at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday with a thumb drive containing malware, according to court records.
The woman, Yujing Zhang, was charged with lying to a federal officer and entering a restricted building after passing several Secret Service agents to gain access to the resort, according to a criminal complaint filed in court in Florida.
Ms Zhang was carrying four cell phones, two Chinese passports, a laptop, an external hard drive and a thumb drive, according to the complaint.
She allegedly entered the Mar-a-Lago resort at around noon, when Mr Trump was golfing nearby, after telling one agent she was trying to get to the pool. “No swimming apparel was found in Zhang’s possession or on her person,” the complaint said.
Security officers at the resort, and its beach club manager, mistook Ms Zhang for a relative of a Mar-a-Lago member with the same second name and granted her access, the filing said. She was picked up by a valet driver in a golf buggy and driven to reception, according to the filing, where she was apparently quizzed by a sceptical receptionist.
Ms Zhang told the receptionist she was at Mar-a-Lago for a “United Nations Chinese American Association” event, according to the complaint. Ms Zhang then told a second agent she was attending a “United Nations Friendship Event” and provided a Chinese-language invitation, the filing alleged.
After her arrest, Ms Zhang told the Secret Service a friend called “Charles” had told her to travel from Shanghai to attend the event at Mar-a-Lago and “attempt to speak with a member of the President’s family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations,” according to the complaint.
Robert Adler, a federal public defender representing Ms Zhang, declined to comment.
