MIAMI _ Authorities have formally charged Yujing Zhang _ the Chinese woman arrested trying to enter Mar-a-Lago last month _ with lying to a federal agent and entering restricted property without permission. They are the same charges as those listed against Zhang in the original criminal complaint.
The indictment, filed Friday, does not include espionage charges, despite authorities continuing to treat her case as a national security matter, according to sources familiar with an ongoing counterintelligence investigation.
Zhang, 33, could face up to five years' imprisonment for lying to a federal officer and one year for entering restricted grounds, and as much as $350,000 in fines, according to court documents.
Authorities could still choose to bring espionage charges against Zhang, a financial investor and consultant based in Shanghai. When she was arrested, she was carrying four cellphones, a computer, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive infected with malware, according to the U.S. Secret Service. A signal detector _ used for spotting hidden cameras _ was found in her hotel room, along with other electronics and more than $8,000 in U.S. and Chinese currency, a federal prosecutor said during a prior court hearing.
The FBI is still examining Zhang's electronic devices and suspected malware. Prosecutors may address the status of that examination at her scheduled arraignment Monday afternoon.
Zhang's arrest reinvigorated a broader federal investigation into possible Chinese espionage operations in South Florida, which was initiated late last year. The investigation started before Zhang's arrest, and will continue regardless of the outcome of her case, according to a source familiar with the federal probe.
Li "Cindy" Yang and her business of peddling access to Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago are also being looked at as part of the investigation, sources said. They asked for anonymity to discuss an ongoing inquiry.
At Monday's hearing, federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman will decide whether to order Zhang's continued detention or grant her a bond. Zhang entered the country March 28 through Newark Liberty International Airport on a 10-year tourist visa she had been granted in 2016. The visa has been revoked as a result of the charges against her.
If she is granted bond, Zhang will move into immigration detention and likely be scheduled for deportation.
Zhang was arrested March 30 trying to enter President Donald Trump's South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. The president was not there at the time, though members of his family were inside. Federal authorities say Zhang lied several times in her attempt to make entry to the property, providing the basis for the more serious charge outlined in Friday's indictment.
Zhang made it through the first checkpoint by telling officers she wanted to use the pool, according to an affidavit filed by the Secret Service. She was allowed to pass when staff wrongly identified her as the daughter of a club member with the same last name _ one of the three most common names in China.
When questioned by a receptionist at the second checkpoint, Zhang said she had arrived early for a "United Nations Friendship Event" that was scheduled for later in the day. No event was scheduled under that name. A prosecutor from the U.S. attorney's office said in court Monday that Zhang had made up the non-existent event as a pretext for gaining unlawful entry to Mar-a-Lago.
The indictment phrased it slightly differently: "When asked whether she was authorized to be at the Mar-a-Lago Club and its grounds, 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," according to the indictment.
Zhang's public defender, Robert E. Adler, pushed back at Monday's hearing saying that Zhang did not lie, and had paid to attend a previously scheduled event under a different name. That event, a "Safari Night" gala to raise funds for a local children's charity hosted by Trump's sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, and promoted online by Yang, had been canceled last minute.
Yang had advertised Safari Night on Chinese social media as a summit of international elites, one that would include Trump Grau as a special guest.
Zhang's attorneys presented a receipt for a $20,000 wire transfer from Zhang to a Beijing-based company that processes payments for promoters who sell tickets to Mar-a-Lago charity events promoted by Cindy Yang. Safari Night 2019 was canceled after Miami Herald reporting revealed that Yang had started a business marketing Mar-a-Lago charity events to overseas buyers hoping to gain access to Trump and his family.
Zhang told agents she had been invited to the "United Nations Friendship Event" by a man named Charles, who Adler said was Yang's associate Charles Lee. Lee runs the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association, a group with no apparent connection to the U.N. that Lee used to advertise Yang's Mar-a-Lago event, including Safari Night 2018. On the website, clients were directed to make payments to Beijing Peace and Friendship Management Consulting Co. Ltd. _ the same company that received $20,000 from Zhang on Feb. 19, 2019.
Federal authorities now believe Zhang knew the event was canceled but showed up to Mar-a-Lago anyway, according to a source familiar with the case. Zhang's name wasn't on the Safari Night guest list, according to the organizer Terry Bomar.
