The Chinese woman who trespassed at President Trump’s Florida resort and lied to Secret Service agents about why she was there was sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday.
Yujing Zhang gained access to Mar-a-Lago in March when she was allowed onto the property by security who believed she was related to a member of the club and was there to swim. She has been incarcerated since her arrest in March and could be released within weeks.
A Mar-a-Lago receptionist testified at Zhang’s trial in September that she did not recognize the woman when she entered the lobby.
The receptionist, Ariela Grumaz, said the Chinese national was “acting very weird and strange.” She said Zhang was recording video with her phone, despite a Mar-a-Lago policy prohibiting members from taking photos and video, and when Grumaz went to ask Zhang to leave the bathroom after she had been there a while, she found the woman pacing back and forth while using her phone.
At the time of her arrest, Zhang was carrying two Chinese passports, four cellphones, a laptop, and a device that was initially thought to contain malware. Investigators found another cellphone, about $8,000 in cash, a device that can detect hidden cameras, five SIM cards, and nine USB drives in her hotel room, according to court documents.
Prosecutors filed classified information under seal in the case at least twice, indicating they saw her as a potential counterintelligence threat. Some defendants in these types of cases have cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence, though it does not appear that Zhang has offered any assistance.
Zhang flew from Shanghai to Newark, New Jersey, on March 28, then went to Palm Beach, Florida, on a one-way ticket.
She told Secret Service she originally booked her flights through “Charles,” with whom she communicated over the Chinese messaging app WeChat, but after complications, she booked the travel herself on March 27.
In her WeChat communications, investigators found a contract dated Feb. 14 between Zhang and the Beijing Peace Friendship Enterprise Management Company in which Zhang agreed to pay $20,000 to go to Mar-a-Lago for a March 30 event.
On March 18, she received an audio message telling her the event would likely be canceled and her money could be refunded. She received another message a day before she booked the travel herself that the event was not happening.
Regardless of the messages, Zhang still went to Mar-a-Lago, where she passed numerous signs that warned trespassers of arrest and prosecution.
“She was not a wandering tourist that fell into this place by mistake,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said in September.
Zhang, who fired her lawyers and represented herself at trial, maintained that she did nothing wrong. She said she went to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump and his family.
