The Secret Service has charged Chinese national Yujing Zhang with crimes related to her March 30 visit to Mar-a-Lago.
Court documents indicate this wasn’t some simple jaunt in the sun.
Zhang repeatedly lied to Secret Service officers and agents in order to access Mar-a-Lago under false pretenses. The court filings also indicate that Zhang claimed she was directed to enter Mar-a-Lago by a Chinese individual “Charles,” in Shanghai, and that Zhang was in possession of a thumb drive containing “malicious software.”
This is in the early stages, but a Chinese intelligence agent appears to have been caught red-handed attempting to bug the president’s retreat. Yes, based on Zhang’s poor tradecraft in attracting attention, and offering contradictory stories for her presence at Mar-a-Lago, and the sensitivity of an operation targeting the president, she is unlikely to be an actual Chinese intelligence officer. Still, this is a big deal.
Because the thumb drive element here strongly suggests that Zhang was trying to introduce data mining or a relay system with which to transmit information to another location. The means of this action, Zhang’s citizenship, the nature of the target, and the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s record means that the organization is the presumptive culprit here. Any organization attempting this intrusion would have assessed that the malicious software could operate undetected at Mar-a-Lago, at least for a time. And most criminals do not target areas under protection of the world’s finest protective force.
Yes, we should keep an open mind. But if the MSS is responsible here, China must answer for it.
