Last week we learned that Yujing Zhang, a Chinese national visiting the U.S., was arrested at Mar-a-Lago after a receptionist asked her what she was doing on the property. She’d already made it past security to get on the property, but an astute employee of Trump’s private club flagged her after her story began to fall apart under questioning. When she was arrested, she was found to be carrying two passports, a laptop, four cellphones, and a thumb drive containing malicious software.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for her hotel room, where they found $7,620 in currency, mostly in $100 dollar bills, along with nine USB drives, five phone SIM cards, and a signal detector used to find hidden cameras.
More from CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz with new details from prosecutors.
Monday, Apr 8, 2019 · 8:11:55 PM +00:00
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Jen Hayden
Sen. Chuck Schumer wants answers. In a statement, he said the outgoing Secret Service Director will be called to testify immediately. From Talking Points Memo:
“The outgoing Secret Service director must testify before Congress as soon as possible about the potential security vulnerabilities at Mar-a-Lago involving a Chinese national arrested with malware, and other counterintelligence and national security threats. The public and Congress need to know the extent to which adversarial governments – like China – and their agents are attempting to gain access to, or conduct electronic surveillance on, conversations or other information regarding national security at President Trump’s properties.”
As questions swirled about how she gained access to Mar-a-Lago in the first place, the Secret Service took the unusual step of releasing a statement saying that it is not responsible for the day-to-day guest list of Donald Trump’s private resort, and that that responsibility lies with the club’s management, which seem to be shameless in selling access to Trump, his family, and other people attaching themselves to the administration. Less than a week later, Trump fired Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles. Well, technically, he had White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney fire Alles, because, as always, Donald Trump is too cowardly to do it himself.
Nevertheless, federal investigators are now looking into covert Chinese intelligence operations potentially happening at Trump's private clubs. It’s a matter of national security, and while this woman was captured, there are likely others who’ve been far more discreet in their spying and infiltration. In fact, bank on it. Former CIA officer Lisa Ruth described Mar-a-Lago as a "gaping hole" for foreign intelligence services. From CBS:
Ruth said the exclusive resort, which charges a $200,000 initiation fee, is a "gaping hole" for foreign intelligence services.
"Certainly President Trump is the biggest target, but there's a lot of other people at Mar-a-Lago who have access or information or intelligence," Ruth said. "You have seasonal employees who are certainly not cleared like a White House employee is going to be. Recruit any of them and you've got a lot of information."
It is crystal clear that Donald Trump and his family have been putting their personal greed over the national security of the country. It’s one more reason we have to send him back to his private club on permanent vacation in 2020. Get ready.