Chinese woman arrested at Trump’s resort indicted
Washington: A Chinese woman who was detained at US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida has been indicted for unlawful entry of restricted buildings and for making false statements to officials.
The two-page indictment against Yujing Zhang was filed in a federal court in the Southern District of Florida and unsealed on Friday.
It alleged that the woman unlawfully entered the Mar-a-Lago Club and its grounds and that she “knowingly and willfully” made false statements to a US Secret Service agent when asked about whether she was authorized to be on the property, NBC News reported.
Federal prosecutors had said on Monday at a detention hearing that Yujing had multiple USB drives, a signal detector used to find hidden cameras and thousands of dollars in cash in her hotel room. She was arrested late last month with a cellphone and multiple passports.
“The defendant stated she was there to attend a ‘United Nations Friendship Event’, when in truth and in fact, and as the defendant then and there well knew, no such event was scheduled at Mar-a-Lago and its grounds,” the indictment stated.
The developments triggered new scrutiny of the security practices at the President’s exclusive Florida golf resort, where he frequently spends weekends with White House aides.
The FBI is said to be investigating the security breach and lawmakers and Congress have also demanded more information about the incident as well as the security practices at Mar-a-Lago.