Yujing Zhang, the woman who allegedly tried to enter Mar-a-Lago carrying malware last month, knew the event she claimed to be attending had been cancelled, south Florida federal prosecutors said Friday in a newly filed indictment.
“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,” the two-page indictment, filed on April 12, states.
That is a separate allegation from the April 1 criminal complaint, which simply said that Zhang had told Mar-a-Lago employees and Secret Service agents that she was planning on attending the event.
Zhang was charged with one count of lying to government officials and one count of entering a restricted building.
At a hearing this week, prosecutors showed a Chinese-language invitation to the “United Nations Friendship Event” that Zhang presented during her attempt to enter Mar-a-Lago. It matched an invitation displayed by south Florida massage parlor magnate Cindy Yang and featured an image of Trump’s sister Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Mar-a-Lago is seen as an intelligence risk in part because of the relatively open access it offers.
