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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
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New York Daily News

Editorial: Mar-a-Lago's security sieve: Trump's club is too tough to safeguard

House Democrats are demanding information on Donald Trump's financial records, his income tax returns and the full Mueller report.

The president sees new witch hunts. But the way Trump conducts business on a regular basis demonstrates the necessity of strict scrutiny _ not only to ferret out corruption, but to protect national security.

To wit: Last week, Chinese national Yujing Zhang was detained by Secret Service agents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, which the president frequents on weekends, with malware found on her person.

Zhang, apparently, was brought into the Trump orbit by Li "Cindy" Yang _ the Chinese-American founder of a chain of massage parlors who's attended several fundraisers at the club, and who has links to the Chinese government.

Breaches at the resort are made quite easily because unlike other presidents who take their weekend retreats at Camp David or securable private homes, Trump uses a bustling club in which he is personally enriched by those attending, but where it can prove vexingly difficult for the Secret Service or FBI to track who's coming and going.

Security clearances handed out to White House staff over professionals' objections, hidden tax returns, lies about a Trump Tower deal in Russia: Put it all on the oversight pile.

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