Fort Lauderdale – A Chinese national, Yujing Zhang, was sentenced on Tuesday, November 26, to eight months in prison after having been previously convicted of unlawful entry of restricted buildings or grounds at what President Donald Trump calls the “winter White House, Mar-a-Lago. Zhang was also convicted of making false statements to U.S. Secret Service agents.
Zhang was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman, in Fort Lauderdale, to two years of supervised release.
According to the Department of Justice, Zhang fraudulently gained entry onto the restricted grounds at the Mar-a-Lago Club where the U.S. President and other persons protected by the U.S. Secret Service were temporarily visiting. U.S. Secret Service agents detained Zhang at the main reception area due to her suspicious actions.
According to the trial record, Zhang was then escorted off the property for further questioning. During questioning, Zhang repeatedly misrepresented to U.S. Secret Service agents that she was at the Mar-a-Lago Club to attend a “United Nations Friendship Event.”
Once arrested, it was discovered that Zhang had on hand Chinese passports, a flash drive containing malware, and a signal detector. She also had other electronic devices and thousands of dollars in cash in her hotel room.
Zhang chose to represent herself during the trial with assistance from the Federal Public Defender’s office and court-appointed translators.
Prosecutors called nine witnesses in a trial that lasted two days.